Vincent Cheung

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

"The trains are delayed"

There's a way to con the TTC somewhere to be found in the following story...

So, the other day, I found myself at Eaton Centre picking up some stuff. On the way home, I went to go take the subway. I figured it would be busy b/c it was rush hour (about 5:30). The platform was PACKED! It was probably 6 or 7 people deep, chest-to-chest, all along the entire length of the platform (the length of the subway train). I've never seen a subway that busy before. The TTC workers were saying that the trains were delayed and they didn't know when it was going to be fixed.

I wait maybe 2 or 3 min. I'm not sure how long these people have been waiting (insert joke involving memory-less exponentially distributed waiting times). People are leaving. Just as I decided that I was going to leave, a train comes. It's PACKED! Everyone inside is chest-to-chest as well. No one is able to get into the train b/c it's already so full. This is going North bound along Yonge at rush hour...

I know it's a lost cause at this point and decide to leave. I take a transfer, not bothering to ask for a refund. I figure that I'd try and take the streetcar. Usually you can't use a transfer at the same stop b/c then you could just take a transfer on your way out, run your errand, etc., and then go back into the subway or take the streetcar, or you could have 1 person go in and take a bunch of transfers from the automated machine and then go to the bus or streetcar stop and let others use these transfers and ride for free. But, the bus and streetcar drivers are pretty diligent at catching invalid transfers.

I wait for the streetcar and surprisingly, not many people are following my lead, probably b/c most are trying to head really far North. I go onto the streetcar and flash the transfer. I can see the driver looking at it and the thinking processes going on in her head and wondering how the hell my public transit path got me to the streetcar from the subway a couple feet away. I told her "the trains are delayed". She accepted this and let me on.

I had to then transfer to another streetcar at Spadina to head North and again the streetcar driver gave me a puzzled look while looking at my transfer. I again told the driver that "the trains are delayed" and I was let on.

There's little communication between the different transportation systems in the TTC, so I'm sure that this line can be used regardless of whether it's true or not.

So there you have it, a magical phrase that can be used to con the TTC.

2 Comments:

John said...

thats brilliant! esp since the subway breaks down every 2nd day or so

Anonymous said...

Muhahaha! good one, I'll use it the next time I am there.

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