A GO train arrives at Union Station in Toronto, on Monday, May 2, 2022.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
It was Gilon James’s first time taking the GO train, but after a fatality on the tracks turned a one-hour ride into a nearly five-hour “nightmare,” it was probably her last.
She was one of the transit system’s passengers heading west from Toronto on Friday night, when multiple trips encountered lengthy delays after a train struck and killed a person west of Exhibition station. Several commuters said their waits were exacerbated by a slew of technical difficulties afterward.
Metrolinx spokesperson Suniya Kukaswadia said GO Train service on the Lakeshore West route was suspended around 11 p.m. owing to the incident. Toronto police also said officers were at the scene to investigate.
Ms. James said she was returning from the Rolling Loud music festival and was on a train behind the one that struck the person. She said she was stuck on the vehicle between stations for more than three hours without water.
“Me being on the GO for the first time, I thought this was the worst experience ever,” Ms. James said, noting passengers were unable to leave the train while it was stuck between stations.
Ms. James said at one point, a passenger on her carriage suffered from a seizure and emergency personnel had to force their way through the doors to get to the passenger and transport them out.
She described how a door malfunctioned and was stuck open after the rescue. She said her carriage was instructed to move to the adjacent cars because of the door malfunction, which is when people became upset as they were even more packed.
Ms. James said she had to stand for the last hour and a half of the nearly five-hour delay.
“It felt like I was in a sardine can,” she said.
Ms. Kukaswadia said she was unaware of any injuries aside from the on-track fatality on any trains and attributed issues with train doors to passengers who had opened several during the delays.
“Crews determined several doors had been opened by customers and needed to be secured before the train could operate,” wrote Ms. Kukaswadia in a statement.
Another commuter, Matt Johnson, said he was on the train involved in the on-track death, and described a jolt onboard when it slammed on the brakes after the incident.
He said passengers were stuck on the train for two hours, as police came onboard to conduct an investigation. Afterward, the train went out of service at the next stop, so passengers were made to board another one.
To Mr. Johnson’s disappointment, that second train also went out of service after just two stops.
The final straw for many passengers was when the third train also had to stop and make them disembark for 15 minutes because of technical difficulties.
“People were starting to get real vocal on the platform,” said Mr. Johnson, who was travelling further to Burlington.
Eventually, Mr. Johnson said he made it home at 4:20 a.m., after first boarding at 10:45 p.m.
Both he and Ms. James said they were frustrated by the lack of information throughout the ordeal, and that there were many times when they were told the train would begin moving in just a few minutes, when in reality it took hours.
When asked about the lack of information given to passengers, Ms. Kukaswadia thanked people for their patience and said all customer feedback would be reviewed.