The Post Blackout Trip to Work
16 January 2009, late morning
I left for work at 9:00 today. I thought leaving during rush-hour proper would be stupid since subways were not running on Bloor. Waiting was probably a good idea, but my guess that by 9:00 things would be OK was way off. I sat in Dale’s drinking a coffee for about 45 minutes, after realizing that a) the subway wasn’t going to start soon and b) shuttle buses weren’t going to empty any time soon. Buses East and West were totally packed by the time they got to Bloor and Lansdowne (Blansdowne). At 10 I hopped on a bus, which, while still quite busy, didn’t have people falling out the front door. The trip to Keele (where subway service had resumed) was uneventful, till you reached the station. Keele was a zoo. I can only imagine how bad it was earlier in the morning. Once I got to Keele, and got on a train heading West, the my trip was a lot less interesting. The train was empty, but running quite slow. My beloved 191 had stopped its rush hour service hours ago, so I took the slow but reliable Kipling and Dixon buses to make it in to work — 3 hours late.
I would have stayed home
by ahilan on January 16 2009, 11:28 am #
I love working downtown. I bet I could have picked a million different routes to take into work. I also have decided I love the Lansdowne bus. It came right as I got to the stop and it wasn’t packed. The Queen Streetcar was a different story. Though I did manage to get on, I spent the next 1/2 hour standing on the front steps hoping people would stop pushing and shoving and that I wouldn’t have to revert to my ninja skills of kicking peoples butts… but I’m too much of a whimp to do that.
by sh!ma on January 16 2009, 11:30 am #
Yeah, in hindsight staying home might have been a good idea, but I didn’t think it’d be that crazy getting in to work.
Glad you followed my advice on getting to work Shima. I think avoiding the Bloor line was key today if you wanted to get in to work at a reasonable hour. I’m stuck in that I needed to get all the way to Kipling, and from where we are, there really isn’t a good way to do that besides the subway.
by ramanan on January 16 2009, 11:38 am #
Also, Twitter is great. Searching for the #ttu tag generally beats the TTC itself at informing you of delays. #darkTO was a good source of info on what was happening during the blackout.
by ramanan on January 16 2009, 12:17 pm #