Normally, I am a very patient person. I have to preface by saying that. Whenever I'm on the train or the bus and there's a delay, I'm midly annoyed but I normally shrug, put on my music, or watch videos on my iPod or read a book or take a nap. This is life, delays happen.
But yesterday, February 8, 2013 was such a horrible experience it left me so disgusted, frozen and generally with a dislike for anyone who works the TTC--and I have family working for them. So here's the thing.
At about 3:30p the big boss at my placement (one of the partners) came around in the office. Shocked we were still there, he sent us home. So from 3:30pm I started home. At St. Patrick station, I couldn't get on the train going North so I had to take the train South one stop, cross the platform then get on a train North. Why? Because by then everyone saw the day was gone to hell and decided to go home. That was bad but I was pretty cool with it. I've had to do it before and didn't really mind.
It took a while to actually get a train at St. George but that too wasn't that much of a problem. The moment we got on the train they started playing an automated voice telling passenger there was a stalled train on the tracks between Warden and Kennedy and they apologised for the inconvenience. Okay....I figured they'd get that stalled train off the track by the time we got there.
No such luck. At Coxwell Station they told us plainly "This train is now out of service. All passengers must leave the train." At this point I was a little over midly irritated. But I got off the train. Soon after that another train came and we got on. It took us to Woodbine station and then they kicked us off that train with promises of Shuttle Buses outside. I darted up the stairs along with everyone else.
No shuttle buses.
We kept asking other bus drivers (from the two buses that were parked there) as well as a TTC Supervisor and a few other TTC personnel - they told us straight up they didn't know what was going on.
For two hours I stood out there in the cold, waiting for a shuttle bus and nothing. That means not only were there no shuttle buses, TTC lied to us. We couldn't get back into the subway because there were too many people blocking everywhere because they keep training people from where ever and dumping them at Woodbine then going back and doing it all over again. So now there were HUNDREDS of people wandering aimlessly through Woodbine Station trying to get home.
When the platform outside was too full, the TTC personnel started herding people like cattle off the property and toward Danforth and Woodbine. There people were falling over, being shoved into traffic, attacked trying to get into cabs--it was viscious. We couldn't really call a cab because they were bombarded and wasn't picking up because it was so crazy. We tried calling the TTC hoping they'd tell us something but no they were closed. I tried calling twice and nothing. They said they closed at six so we were basically left on a route that didn't have a bus--it seems--to freeze to death.
One bus came by and it was out of service.
After two hours, I got irritated, beyond pissed off and went back to the subway. By this time they were screaming that the trains were starting to run again but slowly. I hurried downstairs to find one train on the line, facing east and I figured--we're saved!
I was wrong again. Trains continued to herd people from other stations and leaving them at Woodbine. Passengers who had been there since I was weren't falling for their screams of shuttle buses again. So now the platform was full and they started bringing the trains on the west side and dropping them off over there!
So now there is really hundred of people now, all pissed off, all stranded and all starting to get on my nerves.
Seven trains came by, we boarded, and were promptly asked to leave because the train was out of service. Over and over. After that I was through being nice to anyone. It was such a mess. The TTC personnel wouldn't talk to us. They were acting as if we were animals and didn't deserve to know why this normally 1 hour trip has ballooned into four hours stuck in the subway.
The way they were acting it was like it never snowed in Toronto before. The parking lot at the station was not plowed so I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Since I couldn't go back into the subway there was no where else to go. We were pressed together , rutting around in the slish with no help from the TTC. I was disgusted and frustrated because every year it seems our fare is going up. We pay close to 1300 dollars a year for bus passes and this is how they treat us. We did not deserve and explanation and their apologies are hollow and mean nothing. They kept saying they were sorry but after a while I didn't care--I wanted them to stop saying they were sorry and DO something!
When I FINALLY managed to get to Kennedy Station, I had to stand in the cold while I watch bus after bus leave the station "out of service." How disrespectful is that? They didn't have the curtesy to have a few extra buses waiting to take us where we need to be. They left us stranded, stuck in a group of strangers for four hours, spinning our wheels and when we finally reached the end of the line we were left in the cold while buses were parked Out of Service and left out of service.
This is the state of our bus system is appalling at best. They raise our fares constantly and we keep getting screwed. We pay more for less worse and less service and yet they want more. The TTC expects us to leave our cars at home and let them herd us around but they do not do anything to deserve that responsibility. No one is being held accountable for letting the city down. No one cares and it will remain that way until a few brave souls decide to stand up. Even then, I do not believe it will do any good, because as long as they have their money the rest of us can go to hell.
I for one is tired of this. Even when the mayor had to call the military to dig us out and the buses were running like clockwork then. One winter is snowed so bad, my neighbour had a little buggey got so buried she couldn't find it again until the snow was somewhat melted- even then, I didn't have any trouble getting a bus. But over the years the service from the TTC has deterioated and no one seems to care.
Seriously--Enough is more than enough.
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