First time for everything. I had an encounter with a big fat rat running around on the GO train last night.
I first saw a gray flash out of the corner of my eye. Something had just whipped past and into a little space between the seats. I watched intently for a few minutes and saw nothing. I was about to assume it was just my imagination, but then a furry face emerged. I thought at first it would be a little mouse, but this sucker was no mouse. I'd guess it was 7 inches long, not including the tail, and it was so fat. I can handle a rat, I did move seats, but I didn't panic. But, can you imagine what would happen if it started running around on a packed rush hour train?!
I can't say I'm surprised about it. Now I know you can't completely get rid of rats in the city, they're everywhere and they will eventually get to places they shouldn't. However I did notice this train car was particularly trash strewn with trash like empty food containers, and all the garbage cans were over flowing. Perhaps it was the train that took the brunt of the post-Raptors game crowd. But thenI've noticed much more trash on evening and late night train trains. I don't think it's because GO is slacking off per se, but because weekend ridership is up noticeably, and the weekend riders are much more likely to bring take out food and drinks on their way home after a day in Toronto. The amount of empty liquor containers and beer bottles on Saturday trains is also getting really crazy. I think GO can't keep up with the trash accumulation without taking the train out of service which is not possible with current logistics. So maybe there needs to be someone available at one of the terminal stations to do a sweep through the cars, and empty some of the garbage each run?
