[DavidH]

So umm...no one here is talking about the GO bus crash last night? 1 dead, 3 injured, that's pretty messed up.

Police retrace final moments before Vaughan’s deadly GO bus crash

Obviously a tragic event and my condolences to the family. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else there is to say. It's being investigated and there is nothing concrete known about the cause.

Worth noting this is GO's first passenger fatality ever, in almost a half century of service.

 

[mdrejhon]

I feel very bad for the family of a possibly bright York university student who's now probably going to have a closed-casket funeral.

Worth noting this is GO's first passenger fatality ever, in almost a half century of service.

Wow.

 

[TOareaFan]

I feel very bad for the family of a possibly bright York university student who's now probably going to have a closed-casket funeral.


Wow.

There has been no word, one way or the other, if the 56 year old lady from Brampton who lost her life in this terrible accident is a York University student.

 

[DavidH]

There has been no word, one way or the other, if the 56 year old lady from Brampton who lost her life in this terrible accident is a York University student.

York has said she is on staff (as opposed to faculty) there.

 

[Jonny5]

Obviously a tragic event and my condolences to the family. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else there is to say. It's being investigated and there is nothing concrete known about the cause.

Worth noting this is GO's first passenger fatality ever, in almost a half century of service.

They have an impeccable record. Ignoring incidents involving vehicles at level crossings, how many train accidents have there been? I vaguely recall there was a low speed collision at Union Station that injured some people many years ago. Anything else?

If anyone is interested I found the details here

http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/1997/r97t0299/r97t0299.asp

At approximately 1616 eastern standard time, 19 November 1997, commuter train No. 831 collided with commuter train No. 841 on track No. 1 at Union Station, Toronto, Ontario. One cab car and one coach car from commuter train No. 831 derailed. Fifty-four passengers and two crew members sustained minor injuries.

The Board determined that the collision occurred because the crew reversed train No. 831 without the exchange of critical information necessary to perform the movement safely. Contributing factors include the limited visibility of track No. 1, the inability of the crew to establish intercom communication, and the limited accessibility to the two 'emergency' brake valves closest to the cab control station.

 

[mdrejhon]

York has said she is on staff (as opposed to faculty) there.

Thanks for the correction on her relationship to York.

Still bad. Even more so if she has kids.

 

[rbt]

Worth noting this is GO's first passenger fatality ever, in almost a half century of service.

Those tend to occur when you actually run trains and have passengers.

GO has carried more passengers in the last 10 years than they did in their first 40. Safety issues, being mostly a numbers game, are going to become far more common in the next decade (doubling passenger counts was expected before the 15 minute promise, triple or more may occur).

 

[crs1026]

It's a tragic event, and I'm sorry to see GO's clean record blemished. No point in commenting further until the investigation is completed, it would only be crass speculation.

One (hopefully digressing) observation I will make - the saving grace for this accident was the low passenger count on the bus. Except today, low passenger counts are not a good thing. I have been told that GO's threshold for fares-per-trip is lower than what other local transit operators can afford.

- Paul

 

[wopchop]

The switch failure was west of Clarkson. Some trains were delayed up to an hour with trains backing up all the way to Port Credit.

I wonder how many people will remember to file their refund claims?

Speaking of which, on Christmas Eve when the Lakeshore West train hit that person near Lorne Park Drive, I filed a claim while on the train, and just received a message a couple days ago that my claim was denied. The 7-day refund period has already expired. Great.

 

[AlbertHWagstaff]

Speaking of which, on Christmas Eve when the Lakeshore West train hit that person near Lorne Park Drive, I filed a claim while on the train, and just received a message a couple days ago that my claim was denied. The 7-day refund period has already expired. Great.

If anyone has, please correct me, but I don't expect you'd ever get a claim approved for a train delay due to a trespasser fatality. I think that falls under an emergency situation. Even drunken hockey or football fans playing with the Emergency Alarm on the train for repeated false alarms has been denied with the emergency explanation.

 

[wopchop]

If anyone has, please correct me, but I don't expect you'd ever get a claim approved for a train delay due to a trespasser fatality. I think that falls under an emergency situation. Even drunken hockey or football fans playing with the Emergency Alarm on the train for repeated false alarms has been denied with the emergency explanation.

Yeah, I suspected that, and you are probably right. But still strikes me as a bunch of bullshit. Trains were held for hours that day, and the bus-bridge was terribly organized. On Christmas Eve. Bad PR move on GO Transit's part, IMO.

 

[MrsNesbitt]

Yeah, I suspected that, and you are probably right. But still strikes me as a bunch of bullshit. Trains were held for hours that day, and the bus-bridge was terribly organized. On Christmas Eve. Bad PR move on GO Transit's part, IMO.

Reading the fine print reveals quite a bit about the service guarantee - nearly every possible event that one could think of that might delay a train is exempt from the guarantee on the grounds that it's "outside of GO's control". Case in point, my claim for the large delays on Monday as a result of engine and signal problems (I always submit a claim, even if I know it won't likely be approved) was dismissed for that very reason.

 

[Jonny5]

Speaking of which, on Christmas Eve when the Lakeshore West train hit that person near Lorne Park Drive, I filed a claim while on the train, and just received a message a couple days ago that my claim was denied. The 7-day refund period has already expired. Great.

I got a refund for that incident. They said it did not qualify but was provided to me as a "customer service gesture"

IIRC it was after the seven days too.

 

[MrsNesbitt]

For the record I was approved a refund for yesterdays Lakeshore West switch issues too.

My claim for yesterday's is still being processed, but I'm on Lakeshore East so it's possible that we were experiencing different delays.

Still, GO's criteria don't make any sense to me. Switches merit a refund but signals don't? Issues with one are within their control and issues with the other aren't?

 

[vegeta_skyline]

Yeah, I suspected that, and you are probably right. But still strikes me as a bunch of bullshit. Trains were held for hours that day, and the bus-bridge was terribly organized. On Christmas Eve. Bad PR move on GO Transit's part, IMO.

Exactly what bullshit are you talking about? GO was neither at fault for the fatality(blame the trespasser) or the resulting delay(due to the police investigation - trains cannot proceed through the scene until the police have cleared us to do so). As for the bus-bridge, considering the number of spare buses and drivers they have available plus seeing as how they have to re-route them to an unplanned location, its never simple or quick to implement.