PR failure at Toronto GO Transit: Day 3

Now that’s better… from today’s Toronto Star:

“After our story on Monday sparked public outcry, GO seems to have gotten the message.

McNeil has since sent a letter to the Star, saying “a review of security practices across our network (will) be undertaken. We will also conduct staff training for our front-line workers to better understand established protocols for incident reporting.”

Go Transit also made the board’s CEO available for comments, which sends a good message.

PR failure at Toronto’s GO Transit: Day 2

The Star follows with an editorial after yesterday’s fiasco (it was on City TV too):

“There is a sense among riders that vehicles parked at GO Transit lots face a significant risk of being looted, especially for high-value items such as air bags and catalytic converters. Some riders report having their cars attacked repeatedly over the course of a few months, or they describe returning from work to find multiple vehicles damaged in a single day.”

We can see they’re trying, but it’s still not enough. If they’re lucky, that will be it, but clients will be left with a bad taste in the mouth.

PR failure at Toronto’s GO Transit

This is not good…

The Toronto Star reports auto parts thieves help themselves with impunity at GO Transit’s popular Park-and-Go day parking lots. GO’s Managing Director shrugs and says the lots are “quite safe” – there are only 350 reported incidents per year.

The result of the Director’s careless comments:

“More than 100 emails and calls flooded in from angry readers, some of whom were victimized several times in a year or less at GO stations. The emails made it clear that GO has no process for riders to report thefts, doesn’t share information with police, is understaffed with security officers, and has little or no video surveillance at many lots. Almost all thefts occur during the day, when the lots are jammed with vehicles.”

Wow, even the police gives GO a thumb-down for security.

All right, let’s all sit and watch for a few days as GO’s Marketing & Communications Dept. run around in damage-control mode. Good luck, guys.