[Leo_Chan]

He would have made a separate announcement for each train and each bus. The new Minister is consolidating 100+ press junkets into one. What is she thinking????

Must...Make...Announcement...For...Every...Time...A...Seat...Is...Installed.

 

[crs1026]

Not enough shelter beds for homeless, community housing is falling apart, the bypass is going nowhere..... but we have wifi on GO.

That's not even a lefty liberal agenda. It's just an entitled misprioritization of public effort.

Subways (with washrooms), subways (with washrooms), subways (with washrooms) would make more sense.

If we made King Street a free wifi zone, would it make the businesses down there stop complaining?

- Paul

 

[Leo_Chan]

Not enough shelter beds for homeless, community housing is falling apart, the bypass is going nowhere..... but we have wifi on GO.

That's not even a lefty liberal agenda. It's just an entitled misprioritization of public effort.

Subways (with washrooms), subways (with washrooms), subways (with washrooms) would make more sense.

If we made King Street a free wifi zone, would it make the businesses down there stop complaining?

- Paul

Elon Musk with his Worldwide Gigabit Internet Satellites?

 

[wopchop]

Not enough shelter beds for homeless, community housing is falling apart, the bypass is going nowhere..... but we have wifi on GO.

That's not even a lefty liberal agenda. It's just an entitled misprioritization of public effort.

Agreed. But we all know that this announcement was just pandering to upper middle class 905 voters.

 

[dowlingm]

If they started serving food on board I'd lose my shit. These should be (relatively) bare-bones commuter trains, not VIA trains with excess decadence.

Excess decadence? Not sure which VIA train you've been on.

Anyway, not unprecedented in Canadian commuter railroading http://buzzer.translink.ca/2011/03/the-west-coast-express-coffee-bar-is-back-in-action/

 

[Sandpit]

Not enough shelter beds for homeless, community housing is falling apart, the bypass is going nowhere..... but we have wifi on GO.

That's not even a lefty liberal agenda. It's just an entitled misprioritization of public effort.

Subways (with washrooms), subways (with washrooms), subways (with washrooms) would make more sense.

If we made King Street a free wifi zone, would it make the businesses down there stop complaining?

- Paul

Free wifi on GO is something that improves a lot of lives (even if it's just marginally) for fairly little cost (especially if it's sponsored). It also makes transit more attractive, and is not mutually exclusive with more important issues.

I'm also pretty sure "Free wifi on GO" is a People's Guarantee plank (cause we can't call it the PC platform anymore).

 

[crs1026]

Free wifi on GO is something that improves a lot of lives (even if it's just marginally) for fairly little cost (especially if it's sponsored). It also makes transit more attractive, and is not mutually exclusive with more important issues.

Totally agree with having it. I would put it in the same category as illuminated signs that indicate what the next station will be. Every new railcar should be ordered with it, and the existing ones should be retrofitted.

The egregious absurdity is elevating this to the level of a major announcement, instead of just getting on with it. With so many other more critical things being deflected or ignored.

Oh, and we are only just experimenting with a couple of trains. (Imagine how long it will take for those experimental trainsets to be broken up or non-wifi cars substituted as things break).

I'm also pretty sure "Free wifi on GO" is a People's Guarantee plank (cause we can't call it the PC platform anymore).

It is. Unfortunately the official document was phrased as "Patrick Brown will....." so it appears to have been taken off the PC Party website, but can still be found at other Googleable sources eg here.... see page 54.

- Paul

 

[Northern Light]

We're back at it tomorrow, it would appear.

https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2018/02/minister-of-transportation-to-make-an-announcement-44.html

Its at MARS which would not make me think of GO; except that Mr. Verster will be on hand.

Two pressers in 2 days; she may have been Del Duca's protege all along!

 

[Sandpit]

It is. Unfortunately the official document was phrased as "Patrick Brown will....." so it appears to have been taken off the PC Party website, but can still be found at other Googleable sources eg here.... see page 54.

- Paul

Yeah they should have waited until it's fully rolled out but there's the reason they announcing it right now.

(As an aside, wouldn't it be funny if the winner of the PC leadership race was...Patrick Brown? All this turmoil for nothing. Especially if they already started destroying physical copies of election material featuring Patrick Brown - they'll have to reprint those for extra cost.)

 

[mdrejhon]

The new-station-arrival digital signage included some WiFi infrastructure, so it is supposedly a small cost-add. Since all coaches are supposed to get these digital signs eventually.

If WiFi is installed only installed on those particular coaches, only durig routine install intervals, this may end up being only a couple pennies per rider. But it depends on how the math is worked out.

It becomes more of "why did we pay so much for those new-station-arrival accessibility signage?" question but apparently doing both may cost only a small incremental.

The data-bandwidth fees will be the biggest taxpayer expense.

Especially if it is a good modern multicarrier router (Rogers, Bell, Freedom, and Satellite simultaneously on the same router) which would make it much faster than VIA.

 

[smallspy]

Two pressers in 2 days; she may have been Del Duca's protege all along!

I'm not sure why you guys think that Del Duca or McGarry had or have any hand in their decisions to publicize these announcements. They've been happening for years and years and years at every level of government, and their decisions to make them are done by the party/government, not the minister.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[dowlingm]

Seems odd to me that they didn't start wifi rollout with UPX.

 

[rbt]

Seems odd to me that they didn't start wifi rollout with UPX.

UPX has had wifi, funded by a 3rd party, since launch.

 

[dowlingm]

UPX has had wifi, funded by a 3rd party, since launch.

I've only been on it once so I guess I never noticed!

 

[Northern Light]

I'm not sure why you guys think that Del Duca or McGarry had or have any hand in their decisions to publicize these announcements. They've been happening for years and years and years at every level of government, and their decisions to make them are done by the party/government, not the minister.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

With the greatest of respect Dan, you are a very knowledgeable guy about many things, particularly the railway sector.

Where you often get yourself in trouble is pontificating about things you don't know about, and doing so with the same certainty in your voice (writing) as when you do.

I am very involved in the public sector; and have a very close friend who is a senior communications staffer in a provincial ministry, in Ontario (not transportation).

She and I often discuss how decisions like this are taken.

To be clear, beyond the minister, under no circumstances would the party be involved in press release or press conference decisions.

That, is, in fact, expressly forbidden.

Of course, some party staff, including campaign staff are in regular discussions w/ministers; but direct contact w/Ministry communications staff is exceedingly rare.

Beyond that, the government collectively does not discuss most press releases at the cabinet level.

*key promises*, those for which the Premier will attend, and some others, may be formally discussed, although the details would still be up the Minister and Minister's Office and/or communications staff.

The Minister has significant influence in which items merit a press conference as opposed to a press release.

I won't explain the entire process in the Ministries with which I am most familiar as that would divulge too much; but be assured the process is similar across ministries.

I can tell you there are Ministers who despite having a dozen material news releases from their ministry a month, average less than one appearance in front of media over that period, as a matter of choice.

There are others, who are particularly fond of their own voice, and any camera time, and as a result staff seek out more opportunities for said Ministers.