(The following story by Jeff Gray appeared on the Globe and Mail website on January 15, 2009.)
TORONTO — Trouble-plagued GO Transit tried to blame Canadian National Railway Co. yesterday after thousands of commuters faced a morning of cancelled trains and delays of up to almost an hour. But the commuter service later recanted and said the problem was its own.
Yesterday’s blame game was sure to aggravate fed-up GO train passengers, who have complained loudly about the province’s commuter train service, widely seen to have deteriorated in recent years.
Requests for an interview with Gary McNeil, the managing director of GO Transit, to clarify why GO Transit told media outlets all day that CN was to blame for the delays were turned down.
The two railway organizations have a history of bickering, as CN owns much of the track on which GO runs its trains and also operates much of GO’s signal system.