GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

[nfitz]

...then yes an act of vandalism has occurred.

What is an "act of vandalism" given the word vandalism (or vandalize) doesn't appear in the Criminal Code of Canada?

Best you get is mischief under Section 430(1). Perhaps there's something in the by-laws.

However, if this plastic was this easy to remove, perhaps a good job that someone did so, before a child accidentally suffocated themselves with it ...

 

[ShonTron]

Not sure why you are creating a false argument. If I put a sticker on a window and a subsequent passenger in that seat (perhaps you) peels off the unauthoried sticker then no you are not guilty of vandalism.....I might be for putting the sticker there without authorization but you would not be for peeling it off.

If, however, the owner/operator of the train (ML/GO) make a business arrangement with another company and agree to put ads on the trains and it includes window stickers and those stickers are placed with the full consent of the train operator/owner then no act of vandalism has happened by the placing of the sticker on the window. If, then, someone comes along and, whether they like the stickers or not, decides to peel off the stickers without authorization and, in addition, interferes with the completion of a commercial agreement between two consenting parties...then yes an act of vandalism has occurred.

So what's someone supposed to do when there's a fellow passenger removing such in-your-face adverstising? Push the emergency alarm?

 

[TOareaFan]

What is an "act of vandalism" given the word vandalism (or vandalize) doesn't appear in the Criminal Code of Canada?

Best you get is mischief under Section 430(1). Perhaps there's something in the by-laws.

However, if this plastic was this easy to remove, perhaps a good job that someone did so, before a child accidentally suffocated themselves with it ...

yes silly me....we should find people peeling ads off of GO trains and give them the key to the city...sorry I was not thinking of the children.

 

[TOareaFan]

So what's someone supposed to do when there's a fellow passenger removing such in-your-face adverstising? Push the emergency alarm?

lkely nothing more than politely tell them they should leave it alone as, in the end, it is gonna cost us all money. I was not suggesting that anyone take action against on train vandals....I was pointing out to an ontrain vandal that this is what they were.

 

[junior43]

What is an "act of vandalism" given the word vandalism (or vandalize) doesn't appear in the Criminal Code of Canada?

Best you get is mischief under Section 430(1). Perhaps there's something in the by-laws.

However, if this plastic was this easy to remove, perhaps a good job that someone did so, before a child accidentally suffocated themselves with it ...

For me, it's not a question whether it's vandalism or not. If this type of behaviour was to continue, or spread, advertisers would stop paying and advertising on GO. Then that revenue stream would be lost (which helps subsidize GO fares) so the revenue would need to be made up somewhere else (higher fares) If you don't like the ads, sit somewhere else - or get ready to pay more for an ad free trip.

 

[nfitz]

For me, it's not a question whether it's vandalism or not. If this type of behaviour was to continue, or spread, advertisers would stop paying and advertising on GO. Then that revenue stream would be lost (which helps subsidize GO fares) so the revenue would need to be made up somewhere else (higher fares) If you don't like the ads, sit somewhere else - or get ready to pay more for an ad free trip.

More likely, they'd just put ads in better places, and the revenue stream wouldn't change.

Ad revenue isn't that significant - it's a rounding error. If you look at the most recent Metrolinx annual report, their entire ad revenue is less than $4 million a year. Compared to about $400 million in fare revenue.

Given that 99% of their advertising is not stuck on the inside of train windows, then what are we looking at ... $40,000 a year? So that would raise a $5 fare to ... $5. That would raise a $200 pass to $200.02.

Perhaps Metrolinx should simply not be blocking the windows of vehicles with advertising.

 

[TOareaFan]

Perhaps Metrolinx should simply not be blocking the windows of vehicles with advertising.

And it is certainly within all of our rights to point that out to them if that is how we feel....we do not, individually, have the right to decide for ourselves and start peeling them off.

that is all I was pointing out and am done with it now.

 

[mdrejhon]

Has anybody else seen these on any other GO trains? Was "GO"/"Metrolinx" part of the advertisement? I've seen illegally posted advertisements, that have been slapped on cab walls or windows, usually letter-size pages though. Being Nova Scotia, I doubt it, but could it also be extra poster advertisement from somewhere else that has been slapped by an overeager poster-carrying people that normally put them up on construction sites, telephone poles, and other billboards? Was it a rectangular poster, that did not fit the shape of the window? At least once in the last year, there's been a serreptitious advertisement on a GO train, slapped somewhere that look more in-place on a telephone pole or construction site wall, looking very different from the Metrolinx standard advertisement placements or train wraps. Those are usually cleaned up fairly quickly within a day or few.

I've never seen any official GO-sanctioned advertisement on any windows of GO trains, except the transparent/perforated kind on full-traincar ad wraps which is not currently very common (and far less annoying than an opaque ad blocking a window). This seems an unusual type of advertisement for GO, so I am curious if this is a legal, funded ad. (e.g. Obvious advertisement, well placed, shaped like a rounded rectangle, or as part of an existing full-car ad wrap, with "In Association With Metrolinx", and fitting the window ---versus--- ugly askew generic rectangular billboard poster slapped on a window by a lazy/overeager paid/volunteer poster-wallpapering guy)

If it was an illegal poster, then it wasn't vandalism, but picking up somebody else's litter.

 

[Jonny5]

I've never seen any official GO-sanctioned advertisement on any windows of GO trains, except the transparent/perforated kind on full-traincar ad wraps which is not currently very common (and far less annoying than an opaque ad blocking a window). This seems an unusual type of advertisement for GO, so I am curious if this is a legal, funded ad. (e.g. Obvious advertisement, well placed, shaped like a rounded rectangle, or as part of an existing full-car ad wrap, with "In Association With Metrolinx", and fitting the window ---versus--- ugly askew generic rectangular billboard poster slapped on a window by a lazy/overeager paid/volunteer poster-wallpapering guy)

These were definitely an approved ad. They were professional quality, and designed to precisely fit the train windows.
You are right that this form of advertisement is very uncommon. I have not seen it for at least two years, but I do recall they have used it before. There are two campaigns running concurrently right now with the same type of window ads; RBC Royal Bank, and Nova Scotia Tourism. There could be more I haven't seen.

 

[Jonny5]

Here is the ad in question. Note when I took this pic I had already ripped off and thrown out another part which extended horizontally along the bottom.

 

[Forgotten]

Here is the ad in question. Note when I took this pic I had already ripped off and thrown out another part which extended horizontally along the bottom.

It looks Photoshopped to me. There's no need to make things up to increase your UT cred.

 

[Jonny5]

It looks Photoshopped to me. There's no need to make things up to increase your UT cred.

LOL. You got me. There's no such thing as power outlets on GO Trains!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

It looks Photoshopped to me. There's no need to make things up to increase your UT cred.

Apparently, the ad is legit:

Canada

The campaign launched in Canada on March 18, featuring national TV ads on 10 specialty networks, including HGTV, the Weather Network and Discovery, and four 30-sec TV spots in the Toronto market on CTV, Global and CBC. The ads will air through the end of May. View the newest 30-sec spot, The Leap.

Still coming up:

print and digital ads in national, Toronto and Montreal markets
TV ads in Montreal
an exciting Globe and Mail five-part editorial series by Chris Johns
a GO Transit window cling campaign in the Greater Toronto Area

http://novascotiatourismagency.ca/advertising-campaign

AoD

 

[JasonParis]

Sorry if this was mentioned earlier, but has there ever been talk of VIA providing their Niagara service a stop at James North?

 

[nfitz]

There's no such thing as power outlets on GO Trains!

Sure there is. Last time I needed power for a long trip I found the conductor in the middle car, and he told me which car had a power outlet in ... and so it did.