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VIA Rail

APTA-2048 said:
Drawing conclusions from a stuck VIA train while ignoring the absolutely horrific road conditions last week. Yeah, I think Northern Light seems pretty on point.
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The best way to rally critics of VIA is to suggest a car is better. People who were stuck on highways were off in less than 20hrs. It’s wild that a 2hr trip took 20+ hours. It’s indefensible. Not to mention how even the stations can’t get their act together.

www.thestar.com

Opinion | Why Canada needs to start getting serious about rail travel

Delays, confusion and old trains are all contributing to a transit failure.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

I would suggest the views in defense of VIA are dangerously conservative and myopic and are missing the bigger picture of just how poorly riders and voters perceive public transit in Canada right now.
 
TTCdinosaur said:
I would suggest the views in defense of VIA are dangerously conservative and myopic and are missing the bigger picture of just how poorly riders and voters perceive public transit in Canada right now.
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Those who are defending VIA are well aware of the current state of affairs and are painfully desirous of improvement.

The lesser debate is with those who say trains are just not doable or not worth investing the money. The real battle is with the various politicians and government bureaucracies who are dragging their heels or failing to work in unison. Or just not understanding the problem. Or believing it will go away with the right PR and spin.

Micallef's piece hit several bullseyes and reflects the current reality. Nevertheless VIA puts out a product with many positives.

I do hope this Christmas drives change and greater resolve to do better. At the political level I'm not placing any bets.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
Micallef's piece hit several bullseyes and reflects the current reality. Nevertheless VIA puts out a product with many positives.
- Paul
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Interestingly, I didn't like Shawn's piece, for the same reason I often don't like them, he rarely bothers to interview/talk to people who matter and can influence the things about which he is complaining, and he rarely advocates for specific changes.

You could read that entire piece and largely take away:

a) Boarding at Union sucks
b) VIA needs more money
c) John Tory sucks, Union Station security sucks and homelessness is an issue in Toronto.

Swell. And what does he propose we do about it?

More money for VIA is a fine idea I'm happy to get behind, but as to the rest, here's what I would have liked to see in the column:

a) Who is responsible to get the VIA information sign at Union repaired, when will it be done?

b) Why was VIA rail's communication to the public, and to riders, particularly those aboard trains so poor? What action is being taken to ensure this does not recur?

c) VIA's boarding policy at Union, to my understanding, is largely predicated on the current narrow platforms. The intention is to widen many Union Platforms as part of the current USEP project. Will VIA change its boarding policy on corridor trains at the very least, when wide platforms become available?

d) Why can't signage be placed at end of any current VIA boarding queue to indicate what train and departure time that queue is for?

e) Did VIA not communicate its late arrival time to Union Station staff? If not, why not, what action will be taken to ensure that future communication is better? If staff were informed, why was this not passed on to security?

f) Does security at Union Station in fact have a clear protocol on late closure due to train delays?

g) Does the City in fact have any transportation policy in place for Union in the event of very late train arrivals? A full corridor train would overwhelm local uber/taxi capacity at 1:30am most nights. Can the TTC/GO scramble some buses that would at least get people closer to their destinations and/or to hubs where taxi/uber might be available?

*****

At any rate, my issues w/Shawn who I basically like as a person but dislike as a writer are known. I really prefer a solution-oriented style of writing over what I read as 'whiny'.
 
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Northern Light said:
At any rate, my issues w/Shawn who I basically like as a person but dislike as a writer are known. I really prefer a solution-oriented style of writing over what I read as 'whiny'.
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I found the article whiny also, but I could not dispute some of the facts and conclusions.

There is a branch of journalism that I call the "sad picture story". Just a piece about someone's troubles - published with a picture of the person looking sollemn or sad. Personally, I tend to not read them.

In fairness, journalists sometimes explore a problem that has many moving pieces which they may not have the information or insight to really dissect - so they have to simply report the end symptoms. These stories seem to sell well, so I suppose there isn't much incentive for a writer to dig deeper or dig out information. But I agree they are not meeting journalistic standards if they don't even try.

Doesn't bother me to see journalists poking Tory and Alghabra, either - both are far more talk than results.

As to solutions, the biggest one seems to me to be transparency. All the questions that are asked (yours are good ones) don't get answered. Just having to actually admit the facts might provoke a lot of change. Applies to homelessness as well as transportation.

- Paul
 
Northern Light said:
Interestingly, I didn't like Shawn's piece, for the same reason I often don't like them, he rarely bothers to interview/talk to people who matter and can influence the things about which he is complaining, and he rarely advocates for specific changes.

You could read that entire piece and largely take away:

a) Boarding at Union sucks
b) VIA needs more money
c) John Tory sucks, Union Station security sucks and homelessness is an issue in Toronto.

Swell. And what does he propose we do about it?

More money for VIA is a fine idea I'm happy to get behind, but as to the rest, here's what I would have liked to see in the column:

a) Who is responsible to get the VIA information sign at Union repaired, when will it be done?

b) Why was VIA rail's communication to the public, and to riders, particularly those aboard trains so poor? What action is being taken to ensure this does not recur?

c) VIA's boarding policy at Union, to my understanding, is largely predicated on the current narrow platforms. The intention is to widen many Union Platforms as part of the current USEP project. Will VIA change its board policy on corridor trains at the very least, when wide platforms become available?

d) Why can't signage be placed at end of any current VIA boarding queue to indicate what train and departure time that queue is for?

e) Did VIA not communicate its late arrival time to Union Station staff? If not, why not, what action will be taken to ensure that future communication is better? If staff were informed, why was this not passed on to security?

f) Does security at Union Station in fact have a clear protocol on late closure due to train delays?

g) Does the City in fact have any transportation policy in place for Union in the event of very late train arrivals? A full corridor train would overwhelm local uber/taxi capacity at 1:30am most nights. Can the TTC/GO scramble some buses that would at least get people closer to their destinations and/or to hubs where taxi/uber might be available?

*****

At any rate, my issues w/Shawn who I basically like as a person but dislike as a writer are known. I really prefer a solution-oriented style of writing over what I read as 'whiny'.
Click to expand...
Micallef isn’t a journalist when he writes these pieces - he’s a columnist. Lex Harvey is the transportation reporter.

It would be good to see some connectivity between the column and follow up reporting but that is not in the columnist‘s control.
 
Northern Light said:
Interestingly, I didn't like Shawn's piece, for the same reason I often don't like them, he rarely bothers to interview/talk to people who matter and can influence the things about which he is complaining, and he rarely advocates for specific changes.

You could read that entire piece and largely take away:

a) Boarding at Union sucks
b) VIA needs more money
c) John Tory sucks, Union Station security sucks and homelessness is an issue in Toronto.

Swell. And what does he propose we do about it?

More money for VIA is a fine idea I'm happy to get behind, but as to the rest, here's what I would have liked to see in the column:

a) Who is responsible to get the VIA information sign at Union repaired, when will it be done?

b) Why was VIA rail's communication to the public, and to riders, particularly those aboard trains so poor? What action is being taken to ensure this does not recur?

c) VIA's boarding policy at Union, to my understanding, is largely predicated on the current narrow platforms. The intention is to widen many Union Platforms as part of the current USEP project. Will VIA change its board policy on corridor trains at the very least, when wide platforms become available?

d) Why can't signage be placed at end of any current VIA boarding queue to indicate what train and departure time that queue is for?

e) Did VIA not communicate its late arrival time to Union Station staff? If not, why not, what action will be taken to ensure that future communication is better? If staff were informed, why was this not passed on to security?

f) Does security at Union Station in fact have a clear protocol on late closure due to train delays?

g) Does the City in fact have any transportation policy in place for Union in the event of very late train arrivals? A full corridor train would overwhelm local uber/taxi capacity at 1:30am most nights. Can the TTC/GO scramble some buses that would at least get people closer to their destinations and/or to hubs where taxi/uber might be available?

*****

At any rate, my issues w/Shawn who I basically like as a person but dislike as a writer are known. I really prefer a solution-oriented style of writing over what I read as 'whiny'.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'd add h) something about the long-term and the potential/movement on HFR and the current procurement process. Lots of reason to be cynical and HFR will face challenges, but more frequency and dedicated tracks is at least an attempt to address the status quo given the slim chance of getting improvements from CN on the lakeshore route (HSR Canada (and Greg Gormick?), avert your eyes to this post).
 
Allandale25 said:
I agree. I'd add h) something about the long-term and the potential/movement on HFR and the current procurement process. Lots of reason to be cynical and HFR will face challenges, but more frequency and dedicated tracks is at least an attempt to address the status quo given the slim chance of getting improvements from CN on the lakeshore route (HSR Canada (and Greg Gormick?), avert your eyes to this post).
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Sure, though at the glacial pace that project is moving, its not a near-term solution.

Also, the questions of communication, emergency response and boarding will all apply, in spades to HFR/HSR particularly on a more rural alignment.
 
I certainly didn’t expect this kind of carefully nuanced review from someone stuck on a VIA train on December 23, but I believe it might be an interesting addition to the conversation we already had:

thehub.ca

There is no obvious scapegoat for Canada's rail travel woes - The Hub

It's natural to see events through an ideological lens. But sometimes there isn't a big lesson to be learned. The Via Rail holiday delays are one such case.
thehub.ca thehub.ca
 
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Urban Sky said:
I certainly didn’t expect this kind of carefully nuanced review from someone stuck on a VIA train on December 23, but I believe it might be an interesting addition to the conversation we already had:

thehub.ca

There is no obvious scapegoat for Canada's rail travel woes - The Hub

It's natural to see events through an ideological lens. But sometimes there isn't a big lesson to be learned. The Via Rail holiday delays are one such case.
thehub.ca thehub.ca
Click to expand...
This article explains a lot but also brings up a lot of questions. In the day and age that we can work remotely from anywhere could they not have extra staff in standby? There are solutions that allow flexible call centers in an emergency. The agents would only need a laptop and an Internet connection. Also why didn't someone from management do something, order pizza or water for the passengers on board? Do they not have that authority? If not who does? Hopefully there will be a review of their practices and implement some changes to the procedures that they have in place.
 
Bordercollie said:
This article explains a lot but also brings up a lot of questions. In the day and age that we can work remotely from anywhere could they not have extra staff in standby? There are solutions that allow flexible call centers in an emergency. The agents would only need a laptop and an Internet connection. Also why didn't someone from management do something, order pizza or water for the passengers on board? Do they not have that authority? If not who does? Hopefully there will be a review of their practices and implement some changes to the procedures that they have in place.
Click to expand...
Just because you can‘t see certain things doesn’t mean that they weren’t at least attempted. And that‘s in my view the main message from that article: the less you know what happened, the easier it is to throw around with accusations…
 
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