C.J. over at This Crazy Train already beat me to this, but I cannot let this news bite go by without commenting.
Here's the premise: McGuinty, in order to get votes (let's be honest, it's the only reason he'd do this), is making a promise he cannot possibly keep. He proposes that GO Transit refund fares when a ride is 15 minutes late.
What is the catch? Oh, don't pooh pooh my cynicism. If you didn't think the same thing, you haven't been taking the train long enough.
The catch is that GO will determine what is deemed a delay. And note that there is no stipulation made for cancellations. I once read (and, dammit, I wish I could find that blog again!) that GO will cancel a train that will be 30 minutes late (or whatever their cutoff time is) because cancelled trains do not fall into the "sorry-we-were-late" category. This keeps their "on-time" status up. This is how they can say they run 90-something percent on time.
So, McGuinty says:
“In those circumstances over which we have control, like equipment failure or the management of the tracks, including sharing with other users, we take responsibility for those kinds of things,” Mr. McGuinty said while making the announcement at a GO station west of Toronto.
First of all, what is this "we" shit. As though McGuinty works at GO Transit and has any clue about commuting.
We all know what this really means. It means that the GO alerts we've been receiving--telling us the delay is due to switch problems--will now say the delay is due to passenger illness (how will we know?), extreme weather conditions (do leaves on the track constitute 'extreme'?) and accidents.
C.J. described the accident scenario best.
*snort*
Good one C.J.!
2 comments:
Those delays GO isn't going to refund are probably the ones they run into the most, say 90% of the time, and would cause the longest delays.
Metrolinx/GO has been buying up the lines they operate on from CN, purchasing newer more reliable locomotives, as well as replacing and modernizing the system that controls the switches around Union Station. So, expect less of those kinds of delays that will pay out.
Basically it's a $7 million dollar a year empty promise, both from GO as a cheap PR move, and McGuinty as a last-ditch effort to buy votes. Oh, and the refunds don't cover GO buses, only trains. Hah!
Anonymous: I'm so glad I'm not the only one who sees through the smoke screen.
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