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September 23, 2005
From home to university
For me, every day… is a big adventure. It all begins with riding my favourite rocket to Wellesley or College, and each time, new surprises await me. The subway was stuck 20 minutes between Sheppard and York Mills stations. Then I hear mumbling out of the intercom, “Btchz bztch fire Lawrence… shuttle busses will take you from York Mills to Eglinton” (apparently, there was a fire at Lawrence station). The angry passengers were dumb. Instead of listening to the instructions, they were shouting: “What did he say? What the f%#k am I gonna do now.” Yeah, anyways - it was not their fault. If the TTC screwed us over by forcing us to bus around Yonge, they should have at least made the subway ride short and delightful - and not keep us wasted underground. If there was a real fire preventing the subway ride across Lawrence, it would have to make headlines. (I mean, if it wasn’t serious, we didn’t have to stop at the f%#king station, we could have just rode past it.) We’ll have to wait and see.
So, we got out on York Mills station… and walked up to the buses area. Man, was it ever packed with people. Dumb people. Everyone was already late wherever they had to go, and tried to jampack themselves in the first available bus. Normally, crowds form three lines per bus: two at the rear doors and one in the front. When the crowd gets large and platform space is low, crowds form an angle at the rear doors. In this case, people in the front get on pretty quickly, and they are followed by people behind them. Well, this wasn’t a crowd. It was a mob. Groups of people were jamming in from the sides. Those dumb people weren’t waiting in line, they were cutting it, wait, not only cutting it, but also creating a barrier (a dense barrier, considering the people were being pushed through), so people who were rightfully standing in line couldn’t get past them ahead on the bus. Oh, and these b@$t4rds were standing on the f%#king road preventing loaded buses to leave, and empty ones to come on.
The TTC made no attempt to ease the situation. If you make people angry, they wouldn’t listen to you. Happy people don’t call tech support. But wait, it isn’t over. So, we got on the shuttle to Eglinton, and as soon as it zoomed out of York Mills station, the bus driver told us that the situation has been resolved and the fire had been disposed off. We could have just rode back in, but no: we were dropped off outside of Lawrence station without a transfer (the busses were jampacked, you couldn’t just go and beg the driver to give you one). Given the situation, the TTC booth personnel (they don’t deserve a better name) had to let us in without one. The smell itself was horrible, but it was upstairs, nowhere close to the tracks (the subway should have just rode past). It shows how horrendous TTC personnel are at analyzing the situation and figuring out a solution which keeps riders happy, and instead quickly rush to reroute and organize shuttle busses.
Okay, so this isn’t going to be in tommorow’s news. But, this event will be remembered, right here on the Big Party. TTC - the better way, ride the rocket, where every day is a fun day!
Posted by Oleg Ivrii at September 23, 2005 10:03 PM