Accessibility issues force GO Train rider into longer commute
Posted September 6, 2018 4:14 pm.
Last Updated September 11, 2018 9:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After a long day at work I was relieved to catch an early GO Train home, excited to see my daughter for 10 minutes before bed and spend a nice evening with my husband. I got carried away watching videos on my phone when I realized the train was pulling away from my stop. I ran down to the doors as they were closing. Too late! I now had to continue west to Clarkson, a turn around that would take at least 30 minutes. This is when I met Beverly Albert, she was sitting in the accessibility car holding a cane and we got to talking. I missed my stop because I wasn’t paying attention, she missed her stop because she didn’t have a choice.
For almost two weeks now, a broken elevator at Port Credit station has forced Beverly to travel past her stop another 10 minutes to Clarkson. She then has to take an elevator down to the tunnel, walk to another elevator to take it up to the opposite platform and then wait 15 minutes for another train to take her back to her original destination.
“That’s the only way to get down the proper side of the platform without having to go down a bunch of stairs, which I can’t do right now because of a leg injury,” said Albert.
A long downtown commuter, the broken elevator is the only thing slowing Albert down.
“I’m not the only one who has to suffer it, there are people in wheelchairs who have to take another stop because they can’t get down the stairs either.”
According to the GO Transit website, five elevators out of 66 stations are currently out of service including the one at Port Credit. Metrolinx spokesperson Scott Money says the Port Credit elevator has been down for about 10 days.
The elevator in the story at Port Credit has been down for 10 days, according to Metrolinx spokesperson Scott Money.
“These are two of our oldest elevators in the system and so they can be tricky elevators to fix. They’re about 25 years old and so parts and things like that can be difficult,” he said.
The TTC says just one elevator out of 74 stations is listed as out of order. Forty-four of its 75 stations are accessible, as are all 1,900 buses and 94 streetcars.
