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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Anyone got any more insider info on how the hand over of GO train operations to Onxpress is playing out? Is it going smoothly?
As I understand, there are more questions than answers at this time amongst transitioning employees.

Presumably it'll be start-of service on Jan 1st (~5am) rather than transitioning at exactly midnight.
Their termination letters from their current employer state “effective midnight”.
 
Their termination letters from their current employer state “effective midnight”.

LOL The irony in that is - in railway space, there is no midnight. CROR Rule 1 states that time goes directly from 23:59 to 00:01 with midnight falling in either one.

I know, I am taking this out of context.... it's just an amusing bit of trivia.

- Paul
 
What's the rationale for that?

It's likely one of those rules that was "written in blood".

I don't know the specific situation(s) that led to this rule, but it removes ambiguity inherent in using 00:00 or 24:00 I'm sure the computer programmers liked not having an hour value that spans two days.

So many operational things expire at midnight (to be extreme, such as authority to be on a track) while others begin at midnight (such as somebody else's authority to be on that track) - if "midnight" is a generic term there will be a brief moment when the date and time and thus the authorities overlap. Very easy to be confused as to whether midnight is the last minute of the first day or the first moment of the second day, and possibly both applying at the same time.

The way the rule is written, one day ends at 23:59 and the next day begins at 00:01 so as to make the demarcation clearer.


- Paul
 
I've worked with electricity system control rooms where they don't change to daylight saving time to avoid two 02:00s occurring when clocks "go back" an hour. Do the railways also stay on Standard Time all year?
 
Their termination letters from their current employer state “effective midnight”.
Are they termination letters? I'd assume the letter would transfer employment with the new entity.

If they phrased it as a termination, they'd have to pay severance, and still need a new workforce. (Isn't there rules about terminating employees when the work continues, with the original employer still involved in the new entity?)
 
Traditionally railways worked on standard time year round, to the extreme where timetables were printed in standard time and there were two clocks in depots, one showing railroad time and the other showing “city time”. That changed I believe in the late 1960’s

There are fairly careful procedures applied for the hour of transition each spring and fall

Back in the day when timetable operation was in use, extreme measures were applied at time change such as covering clocks that might not get changed right away, for fear that someone would look in a window and rely on the (wrong) time.

- Paul
 
Are they termination letters? I'd assume the letter would transfer employment with the new entity.

If they phrased it as a termination, they'd have to pay severance, and still need a new workforce. (Isn't there rules about terminating employees when the work continues, with the original employer still involved in the new entity?)
Could be there was a legal entity specifically formed for the sole purpose of the original contract, and now Onxpress has simply bought that entity, perhaps for $1, so it's not technically a real change of employer.
 
Could be there was a legal entity specifically formed for the sole purpose of the original contract, and now Onxpress has simply bought that entity, perhaps for $1, so it's not technically a real change of employer.
It is considered a change of employer. They will be receiving RoEs and should be receiving new letters of contract, if they haven't already. That's how they can get away with such silly nonsense as restricting their vacation for the first year or two of the contract.

Dan
 
It is considered a change of employer. They will be receiving RoEs and should be receiving new letters of contract, if they haven't already. That's how they can get away with such silly nonsense as restricting their vacation for the first year or two of the contract.
Well, it's how they can try. I assume there's a union.
 
For office staff? Unlikely.
Ouch. Certainly not all of them. I hadn't considered that.

They still have the option to make a legal challenge, but it becomes expensive and onerous for individuals. I bet the slimy management they just hired (who they can easily impose such conditions) are subjected to that.
 

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