Toronto Union Pearson Express | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | MMM Group Limited

AlvinofDiaspar said:
Half the time the issue isn't even what one eats - but how the remains are disposed of. That to me is area that needs the most work on.

AoD
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Like any behaviour in public when sharing space, it's all about *discretion*. It must be remembered that GO trains no longer have a water fountain. That used to be a life-saver for those of us needing to hydrate at regular intervals. Drinking from a warm water-bottle doesn't quite do it.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Slight difference - VIA has someone coming by to clean up on route and in between trips.
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UPX trains get cleaned up every time they arrive at Pearson, which is every other trip. Via gets cleaned up at the end of every trip which is normally at least 4 hours--they come by with a trash bag usually once somewhere towards the end. I would say that makes UPX much cleaner.
 
steveintoronto said:
Like any behaviour in public when sharing space, it's all about *discretion*. It must be remembered that GO trains no longer have a water fountain. That used to be a life-saver for those of us needing to hydrate at regular intervals. Drinking from a warm water-bottle doesn't quite do it.
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That's probably less of a littering issue (like honestly, it is *just* water - the most harmless liquid) and more a health/safety/cost thing?

Megaton327 said:
UPX trains get cleaned up every time they arrive at Pearson, which is every other trip. Via gets cleaned up at the end of every trip which is normally at least 4 hours--they come by with a trash bag usually once somewhere towards the end. I would say that makes UPX much cleaner.
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UPX is also slightly more upmarket and have a much smaller ridership, which helps.

steveintoronto said:
Not on the short runs.
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Again, see above re: UPX.

steveintoronto said:
Well that's where I'd get upset. Eating babies, whether breastfeeding or not, should not be allowed.
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And you'd land yourself on OHRC - which have consistently ruled for allowing breastfeeding pretty much everywhere.

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/pregnancy-and-breastfeeding-brochure

What are my rights in services?
Services must also be provided free from discrimination. This applies to areas such as:
  • restaurants and cafés
  • stores and malls
  • schools
  • parks
  • public transit.
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AoD
 
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Well that's where I'd get upset. Eating babies, whether breastfeeding or not, should not be allowed.
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And you'd land yourself on OHRC - which have consistently ruled for allowing breastfeeding pretty much everywhere.

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/pregnancy-and-breastfeeding-brochure


AoD
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lol...I think you missed the dark humour. ("Eating babies") Hey, I was European raised, and breastfeeding in public was/is totally accepted. But that's essentially the point! Cultural maturity or not of Canadians and their wishing to impose Victorian standards on others, such as snacking in public. Again, the term "discretion" is tantamount.

I do get an uncomfortable chuckle from breastfeeding mothers who try to wear it as a sign of their liberation and rights, but then get offended if your eyes happen to drift across their breasts. Then the tendency is to purposely *not* look in that direction, since your intents might be mistaken.
 
steveintoronto said:
Well that's where I'd get upset. Eating babies, whether breastfeeding or not, should not be allowed.
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steveintoronto said:
lol...I think you missed the dark humour. Hey, I was European raised, and breastfeeding in public was/is totally accepted. But that's essentially the point! Cultural maturity or not of Canadians and their wishing to impose Victorian standards on others.

I do get an uncomfortable chuckle from breastfeeding mothers who try to wear it as a sign of their liberation and rights, but then get offended if your eyes happen to drift across their breasts. Then the tendency is to purposely *not* look in that direction, since your intents might be mistaken.
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Well, which European are we talking about? I am all for going Scandinavian in terms of expectations and standards.

But yup, there is definitely awkardness re: public feeding and how to react as a fellow rider. Partly because it is done so rarely I think.

AoD
 
ShonTron said:
Mississauga Transit used to (still does?) have a policy that "light snacks" and non-alcoholic beverages were permitted for consumption on board.
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Ugh. Don't even get me started on the drinking on GO. Yes, I have had a traveler or two on the way to a game, or on a Friday night home from work, especially in the holidays in December, but it's discreet, and no one would ever really know. Yet I wonder why be discreet when people openly drink liquor from the bottle on the train. I've even seen people openly snorting coke on the trains several times this year. The enforcement is sparse and clueless. Trains late on Saturday are a mess of empty cans, liquor bottles and food trash all over. God help you is you get on a train after 6pm on a Friday when it's now open season to behave however poorly you choose.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
But yup, there is definitely awkardness re: public feeding and how to react as a fellow rider. Partly because it is done so rarely I think.
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The key-word again is "discretion" although a lot of 'liberated women' take offense to that...I should specify *nouveau liberated*! Many (but not all) European nations have grown up with it, and it's just not an issue there for rabid feminists to latch on to. As alluded prior, what I find curious is when it's purposely advertised "look how liberated and what a good mom I am" and then they give you the evil eye if you should happen to glance in that direction, like you're a voyeur. It then becomes an imposition on others, not on the mother. "Discretion" is the key to eating, drinking, burping or natural childbirths on the dis-Orient Expressed.

I'm British...albeit eating Brexit on a train really upsets my EU reflux status, especially on the Eurostar. (Albeit backwards Britain never was part of Schengen, so passport controls have always existed, and will so even more post-Brexit). As the brash North American of my family (I stayed when the family returned some forty years ago)(older brother just retired from working Great Western Trains) there are many things that infuriate me with the Brits, but public breastfeeding certainly isn't one of them. It's considered by most, even in a very sexually confused society, to be normal and natural. I watched all of my younger brothers being breast fed, and my folks were hardly the epitome of sexual liberation.

What bothers me sometimes on GO is the piousness of the "Quiet Zone". Some get upset even if you speak in whispered words to the person next to you. I can show some of the offended others places that their noisy laptops can be plugged into....and then we won't have to listen to the constant sound of cockroaches running over garbage bin lids as they type, along with the beep, beep, beep, ring-tone, squawk, beep-beep, ring-tone, etc, etc, etc not to mention the bleed from their tacky ear-plugs, some Gawd awful shiddy unhip-hop totally non-creative or original regurgitated plastic rendition. (I play, but real music)(and yes, that's pious, but I don't walk around with buds in my ears and fingers up the wazzoo)
 
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Jonny5 said:
Ugh. Don't even get me started on the drinking on GO. Yes, I have had a traveler or two on the way to a game, or on a Friday night home from work, especially in the holidays in December, but it's discreet, and no one would ever really know. Yet I wonder why be discreet when people openly drink liquor from the bottle on the train. I've even seen people openly snorting coke on the trains several times this year. The enforcement is sparse and clueless. Trains late on Saturday are a mess of empty cans, liquor bottles and food trash all over. God help you is you get on a train after 6pm on a Friday when it's now open season to behave however poorly you choose.
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Sports fans...they procreate, drive and vote. We're screwed as a society. Oddly, most of them are in *terrible* shape physcially. Sometimes the difference between 'sports' and 'consumers' is little more than vowels and consonants.

It boogled me as to all the money thrown at the Pan Am games, and how little was put towards the fitness and well-being of the Average Joe.

Whatever, don't conflate that behaviour to Average Plebe needing a drink or snack as they are famished and exhausted, and already late getting home to take care of the kids.

Some make a mess out of sex too...doesn't mean that it should be banned. Or that we all make a mess out of it....errr...all the time.
 
Are you being sarcastic or trolling.
steveintoronto said:
Sports fans...they procreate, drive and vote. We're screwed as a society. Oddly, most of them are in *terrible* shape physcially. Sometimes the difference between 'sports' and 'consumers' is little more than vowels and consonants.

It boogled me as to all the money thrown at the Pan Am games, and how little was put towards the fitness and well-being of the Average Joe.

Whatever, don't conflate that behaviour to Average Plebe needing a drink or snack as they are famished and exhausted, and already late getting home to take care of the kids.

Some make a mess out of sex too...doesn't mean that it should be banned. Or that we all make a mess out of it....errr...all the time.
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sixrings said:
Don't GO into the quiet zone then. Problem solved.
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Well, well...you stepped nicely into that one.

Dogs are allowed, but you rant against it, but in the Quiet Zone, noise from computers is allowed, but quiet conversation isn't? Take a bow Sir! Thank you for playing "Reveal my real meaning"! (Today's episode: "Do as I say, not as I do!")

Btw: Since when was "Quiet" the same as "Silence"? If you are having a quiet conversation, then it exactly meets the terms of the "Quiet Zone".

Feel absolutely free to post missives stating otherwise...

Allow me:
Welcome to the Quiet Zone
You asked, we listened - the Quiet Zone is now a permanent service offering and will continue to be in effect on all rush hour GO Trains, Monday to Friday!

Located on the upper level, the Quiet Zone is an area where you can expect all the regular comforts of your GO Train ride – a chance to relax, catch up on sleep or work, read a book or have some time to yourself – with the added benefit of reduced noise.

We realize that the Quiet Zone won’t always be silent – announcements will still need to be made, people will have quiet conversations and cell phones may ring – but we and your fellow passengers in the Quiet Zone ask that any noise is kept low and brief for everyone’s comfort.

Here are a few things to remember when travelling in the Quiet Zone:

  • Short and quiet conversations are okay
  • Keep electronics including cell phones, tablets and laptops muted
  • Ensure your headphone volume is so low others cannot hear it
We want all our passengers to be comfortable. If you want to talk with your GO Train friends or chat on your cell phone, the lower levels are available.

Please consider others while in the Quiet Zone.

Rush hour includes all trains arriving/departing Union Station before 9:30 a.m. and all trains leaving/arriving at Union Station between 3:00 and 7:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
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http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/travelling/quietzone.aspx

Zero tolerance for small talk on GO train Quiet Zone: The Fixer

A woman says she was shushed and later accosted by other riders over a brief, "hushed" conversation with her husband.
Even the smallest conversation can be grounds for a shushing when vigilantes are enforcing Quiet Zone rules on a GO Transit train.

And if shushing doesn’t work, the emergency bar can always be pushed to summon a security officer to rush to the scene and order the offenders to pipe down.

GO’s website says “short and quiet conversations are okay,” in Quiet Zones, in the upper compartments of rush hour trains. But some people have zero tolerance for talk, unless it’s to tell somebody else to shut up.

Diane Pope sent us a marvellous email about an imbroglio with a bossypants noise marshal, asking us to “spread the word regarding ignorant behaviour that takes place in Quiet Zones.”

She had just settled in for her daily ride from Oakville to Union Station last week, when she “leaned over to remind my husband of something we needed to do later that day.

“My husband, as I had done, replied in a hushed voice and spoke no more than four or five seconds. To our dismay, a woman seated directly ahead of us turned around and offered some curt advice: ‘This is the Quiet Zone. No talking.’ ”

Pope said she could have shrugged it off, but it bugged her because she has “witnessed so many similar instances over the past year in which fellow GO passengers have been told to ‘ssshhhh.’

“Rather than being silent, I mentioned to my husband a moment later, my tone now elevated, that this woman clearly is not aware of the rules, and that short, quiet conversations are permitted.

“The matter turned ugly,” when they got to Union Station, she said. The woman who had told them to shut up “turned around and informed me, ‘now you are allowed to talk.’

“When my husband and I began explaining that talking is in fact permitted, we were met with a barrage of commentary from two passengers seated opposite from us.

“Their message was that we were the ones being rude by ‘talking the entire train ride,’ a complete falsehood. Another passenger intervened to say that my husband and I had done nothing wrong, while insults and additional, unnecessary commentary continued to be hurled at us by an older, male passenger until we disembarked.

“We then proceeded to have a loud argument with this male passenger on the train platform. For a few moments, I actually felt unsafe, harassed and threatened.”

Even worse, Pope said, she’s “witnessed on several occasions the emergency button being pushed by passengers, only for on-board GO personnel to arrive to hear complaints about others speaking in the Quiet Zone.

“GO personnel will usually make an announcement, reminding passengers that the emergency buttons are for emergencies only, without reminding passengers that talking quietly in the Quiet Zone is fine.”

Who knew that Train Rage is a budding phenomenon?

Pope thinks GO should try harder to inform passengers that it’s OK to talk, as long as it is brief and in a low voice. Or she says someone will eventually be assaulted, due to the “silliness” of self-appointed noise police.

STATUS: Anne Marie Aikins, who deals with media for GO, said Quiet Zones are popular with riders, but some have very different ideas than others about acceptable noise levels. “People ask why we don’t enforce Quiet Zones, but it’s very difficult to enforce,” she said, noting it isn’t enforceable in law. “We don’t have shushers and our security staff has better things to do,” said Aikins, adding officers have had to warn passengers about pushing the emergency bar over someone talking too loud. If a rider needs to be told to keep it down, Aikins said the aggrieved party should go to the fifth coach, where a security officer can usually be found, and ask them to deal with it. “We don’t want people to confront people or get into fights or exchange angry words,” she said. If anyone has had problems with citizen enforcers and has a story to tell, please let us know about it.
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https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto...ll-talk-on-go-train-quiet-zone-the-fixer.html
 
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