passion...schmassion

day 11375: for what it’s worth

It seems like every day there’s another subway delay. This morning, I was 40 minutes late for work. Last week, I was late 3 out of 5 days – all because of things that happened on the subway. Minor fires and typical signal problems led to delays which led to people becoming a little too hot and bothered and everything snowballed when someone with an itchy trigger finger activated the passenger alarm.

This morning’s delay was excessive – even the CGM of the TTC was late for a meeting with the TTC chairman. Mechanical problems started a chain reaction which culminated into a passenger alarm activated on my southbound train. Someone was overcome by the heat and passed out, the entire train was evacuated and paramedics called.

Like everyone else, I bitch and moan about being crammed into a packed subway car with hundreds of other sweaty, anxious people. I hate being pressed up close to people. In an ideal world, my personal space is such that I can stick out both my arms and turn around in a full circle without hitting anyone. I hate more than anything to be late… even if it is for work.

But here’s the thing – no matter how inconvenience you are, you really shouldn’t make light of the situation. It might be funny to you when you call the office to tell them that “another person bit the dust,” or that it was “your typical Monday morning hostage taking,” but to the rest of us who are smashed into the train with you (me, having let 3 trains pass already because it was too full to get on), you sound like an insensitive, selfish ass who doesn’t realize that 5 trains ahead of you, there really is someone still lying on the floor because the paramedics couldn’t get through the crowd and into the train before it pulled out of the station – all because they tried to speed up service.

For what it’s worth though… I do have questions about this morning’s fiasco:

1. To the people standing outside the windows of the car of the fallen guy – why do you continue to watch when you know that the poor guy deserves his privacy?

2. To the TTC logistics people – when you stopped the northbound train and evacuated it to send it southbound, why didn’t you direct the hoards of people standing on the platform to get onto the train so as to clear out some of the congestion?

3. To the TTC logistics people, the paramedics, the police officers – why weren’t you better coordinated so that the paramedics could actually get onto the train to help the guy, instead of pulling away from the station just as they got there?

4. To the CGM and the chairman of the TTC – Can you please take this as a sign that something must change?