[sixrings]

What are we even looking at? Would be nice if you could explain things further, especially since the photo does not seem to be loading properly - when I click on it(on mobile), it just zooms in on a corner of the photo and I can zoom out.

The snow isn’t shoveled between the sidewalk and the door boarding.

 

[T3G]

^that

Also, I don't know what I can do about the formatting as it loads fine on my phone. Maybe check your adblocker or a script blocker to see if it isn't blocking some element of the site?

 

[rbt]

The snow isn’t shoveled between the sidewalk and the door boarding.

But it is: there's a snow-blower pass to the right of the footsteps.

 

[SkylineHorizons]

^that

Also, I don't know what I can do about the formatting as it loads fine on my phone. Maybe check your adblocker or a script blocker to see if it isn't blocking some element of the site?

Well in any case as we see from the enhanced photo above his point of criticism was wrong - there is litterally a snowblower pass right there.

 

[sixrings]

My neighbours driveways are heated. So this never happens. Maybe this is what we need on these side of the road stops in the middle of nowhere.

 

[T3G]

But it is: there's a snow-blower pass to the right of the footsteps.

Well in any case as we see from the enhanced photo above his point of criticism was wrong - there is litterally a snowblower pass right there.

????

My neighbours driveways are heated. So this never happens. Maybe this is what we need on these side of the road stops in the middle of nowhere.

Geez, with thinking like this we'll never be able to move past the social idea of transit as being nothing but charity for the dregs of society. Who said anything about heated bus stop pads? It would be enough if those charged with clearing the sidewalks didn't completely neglect suburban bus stops. Give me a break.

 

[crs1026]

If you want to make things better, I hope you sent this to GO with time and date and location. Complaining here doesn't get much action.

I would help that by now, someone has done a better job of clearing the stop, but it's hard to say if this is the result of low standards or just what can happen immediately after a very major storm when there is one plow for roads, one plow for sidewalks, and possibly a contractor for bus stops - and little room to coordinate these. I would cut GO a little slack for the first 24 hours, perhaps if you contact them they can explain their service standard for snow removal (they do have one).

I certainly saw lots of snow removal going on today.

- Paul

 

[Bordercollie]

The operational changes during the storm for trains, was it due to the lack of available crews?

Did they have to do equipment moves to get the equipment in the right place for the next day?

I was waiting for the 16 from York Mills to Bramalea at 6:50 and even by 7:15 it hadn't shown up with no alerts on the website.

 

[T3G]

I will certainly be filing a complaint to GO. I haven't gotten around to it yet as I was out all day. I have little hope of anything getting done though since it's not their property. This is a regular occurrence in Milton every time we get a snowfall and every single bus stop I saw today was like this - the sidewalks get cleared, but the bus stops might as well not even exist.

FWIW, I didn't see any nonsense like this in Mississauga, except for the one stop on the south side of Derry just east of Ninth Line. That whole meadow is horrendous for pedestrians.

 

[Bordercollie]

I will certainly be filing a complaint to GO. I haven't gotten around to it yet as I was out all day. I have little hope of anything getting done though since it's not their property. This is a regular occurrence in Milton every time we get a snowfall and every single bus stop I saw today was like this - the sidewalks get cleared, but the bus stops might as well not even exist.

FWIW, I didn't see any nonsense like this in Mississauga, except for the one stop on the south side of Derry just east of Ninth Line. That whole meadow is horrendous for pedestrians.

It's because the contractor they assigned to that area is lazy. Too bad they don't have people to check to make sure the work is done properly.

 

[sixrings]

I will certainly be filing a complaint to GO. I haven't gotten around to it yet as I was out all day. I have little hope of anything getting done though since it's not their property. This is a regular occurrence in Milton every time we get a snowfall and every single bus stop I saw today was like this - the sidewalks get cleared, but the bus stops might as well not even exist.

FWIW, I didn't see any nonsense like this in Mississauga, except for the one stop on the south side of Derry just east of Ninth Line. That whole meadow is horrendous for pedestrians.

Couldn’t you have filled out the complaint on the hour and a half commute the Milton riders suffer from.

 

[T3G]

No, because the aspersions cast on the original photo I posted made me wonder if I was losing my marbles and I had to verify that, in fact, there was no snow-blower pass (or at least not a complete one).

 

[PinkLucy]

Using the TTC yesterday with a.5 year old in tow was an adventure in climbing snowbanks. At one stop, we got off the streetcar to be faced with a high snowbank and no where to go except to walk in the live traffic lane up to the corner. We had lots of snow yesterday, I get it. I just shared this example to show that the snow wasn't just a problem for GO riders.

 

[Northern Light]

Using the TTC yesterday with a.5 year old in tow was an adventure in climbing snowbanks. At one stop, we got off the streetcar to be faced with a high snowbank and no where to go except to walk in the live traffic lane up to the corner. We had lots of snow yesterday, I get it. I just shared this example to show that the snow wasn't just a problem for GO riders.

I was out yesterday as well with similar observations.

I'm still able bodied, and for the most part this was an irritation/nuisance more than an insurmountable obstacle for me.

But I noted that anyone who normally requires a bus to deploy a ramp, particularly someone using a mobility aid was out of luck. At most stops, 2-4ft high snowbanks made that impossible.

In Toronto, as I assume elsewhere, crews are trying to manage this. Lets acknowledge, a relatively major snowfall will always take some time to address, cities/regions simply can't keep thousands of crews/contractors on standby, and there are equipment limitations and rest periods.

That said, I think most of us feel that the performance more than 24 hours on left something to be desired.

To that end, I offer 2 thoughts........In the first decade of this century, Toronto had 5 snow melters (vehicles) in its yards.......... today, it has only 2. I'll use that as a singular example of how services are quietly reduced to meet a tax freeze or like goal without much advertising. Equipment ages/falls into to disrepair and it isn't replaced....... anyone remember the public debate on reducing snow melters by 60%? Me neither.

Second thought, I have been, continue to be and plan on staying an advocate for using built-in snow melt tech in sidewalks, at bus stops, and around gutters/drains, when this infrastructure comes up for reconstruction.

Its not cheap, but its probably less expensive than you would think.......~$12-30 per ft2 depending on what tech you use, and should be towards the middle/low number if done when the asset is being rebuilt anyway.
That would make a bus stop, including sidewalk, curb, gutter and portion of the roadway, something in the 6-15k range.

I'm not suggesting one would do this for every stop, much as that might be nice, but for high priority locations, hills, high volume stops and those in front of LTCs and hospitals would seem obvious choices.

Rebuild 200 stops per year, for 10 years, that's 2,000 stops at a cost of ~30M or 3M per year., on an a18.8B budget.

Take that that number up 5x to 150M for some key stretches of sidewalks, and 50 intersections over a decade (all 4 corners)

It seems like a good investment to me, and the crews who wouldn't be needed for the above work could be redeployed.

 

[Metroscapes]

Topical: the City of Guelph was out on Friday morning using machinery to clear their bus stops.

Note to mods: can we investigate making Bluesky posts as embeddable media?