Lives Are At Risk

The GO trains suffered serious delays this morning.

I was called at 0230 to report to work at 0430 for a GO train. Job 9. We left Hamilton twelve minutes late. We would have been on time, but there’s only one engineer on the trains now. It takes longer to change directions. Maybe, when the public gets fed up with train delays, they’ll complain loudly enough that GO will demand a return to two engineer operations. We were about sixteen minutes late at Clarkson, our last stop. We were to run express (non-stop) then to Union Station.

Because we were late, and due to bad weather, the crowds were larger than normal. About half of the people on the platform at Clarkson were unable to board the train. We were jam-packed and left a hundred or more waiting in the freezing rain when we finally departed.

Nine miles further east, at Canpa, we were stopped by a red signal. I radioed the dispatcher to ask what was wrong.

“There’s a signal problem at Canpa,” he told us. “There’s a signal maintainer there and I’m sure she’ll get things sorted and have you on your way shortly.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“Yeah, OK, dispatcher,” I said. “I’m sure she will. She’ll have things fixed up in no time.”

And so we waited. And waited. And waited.

After thirty minutes, alarms began to sound in the locomotive. Passenger assist alarms. A digital display in the locomotive showed the location. I called the conductor on the intercom.

“I’ve got a passenger assist alarm here in coach 2402, Mike. What’s going on back there?”

But the train was so crowded, there was no way he could possibly respond to the alarm.

“Shit, I can’t get to it,” he said. “I can’t even move back here. Send Jordan back, will you?”

Jordan was the brakeman – the conductor’s helper. He was on the engine with me. That’s what they do now, Ms J. There’s only one engineer, so the brakeman rides on the engine and leaves the conductor alone in the train. Ten coaches, 2000 passengers, and one conductor. It’s insane.

Jordan walked outside on the track beside us. It’s a very dangerous thing to do, of course, but we had no choice now. There was some sort of emergency on our train and we had to investigate it. It took him about ten minutes to reach the victim. Then he called me on the radio.

“There’s a man here,” he said. “The guy’s a foreigner. I can hardly understand him, but I think he has high blood pressure. He’s having trouble breathing. There’s too many people on this car. He’s already fainted once. He says he needs an ambulance.”

We were at Canpa, Ms J, two miles west of Mimico, in the middle of nowhere. How could we get an ambulance out here? Then another alarm went off. Then a third one.

“Jordan, there are more alarms for passenger assistance. One in 2414 and one in 2312. Hang on a second. I’m going to use the PA and ask if there’s a doctor on board.”

“Never mind,” said young Master Jordan. “There’s a couple of nurses here with me now. But I still need an ambulance.”

“Go and check out the other alarms,” I told him. “I guess you’ll have to walk outside. I’ll watch for trains and let you know if I see one.”

I used another radio to call the operations centre and ordered an ambulance. We had a red light, though, between us and the next station – Mimico. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I told the ops person to dispatch an ambulance to Mimico. We’d be there eventually, if the signal problem was rectified.

The conductor and brakeman both responded to the other alarms. Other passengers were feeling ill, nauseous, dizzy.

“They’re dropping like flies,” said the conductor. “They’re packed in here like sardines.”

It was pretty crazy, Ms J. And no, I wasn’t laughing about it. This is what happens when trains run late. People panic. I guess they don’t want to wait for the next train, so they pile onto any train they can. It was bedlam.

After an hour’s delay at Canpa, we finally proceeded to Mimico where an ambulance was waiting to take the man to hospital. The conductor opened all the doors to allow people to step out onto the platform and after a brief stop, we carried on to Union Station in Toronto. We arrived about eighty minutes late.

It was stressful, Ms J. Exciting and stressful. I hope the man with high blood pressure is OK.

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