A 51-year-old man from Newmarket was killed Jan. 14 after being hit by a train south of the Newmarket GO station.
The death is being regarded as non-criminal, York Regional Police Const. Laura Nicolle said, and the man's identity is not being released.
At about 5 p.m. last night, GO Transit notified commuters via social media that it had received a report of a possible fatality on its Barrie line, south of the Newmarket station.
“Emergency workers are on site and trains will not be able to move through the area for about two hours,” GO officials said.
The GO Barrie line train service was suspended for about four hours at the Aurora station, with no trains going north while York police and GO officials investigated the incident. Travellers from Toronto’s Union Station also faced cancellation of several evening northbound GO trains.
York Region Transit provided limited bus service to stations north of Aurora, including Newmarket and East Gwillimbury, and commuters were advised to explore alternate travel options.
Go Transit expressed sympathy for the victim on its Twitter account, saying “it’s definitely a tragic event and our thoughts and prayers go to the family and loved ones as well”.
Metrolinx spokesperson Matt Llewellyn said these types of tragic situations are “extremely difficult, frustrating and stressful” for everyone involved, whether that is the customer communication teams, front-line first responders and emergency crews, and the customers on board.
“It can be very, very difficult for our crews that are involved in this, it’s very difficult to stop a train,” Llewellyn said. “We immediately bring in a relief crew to replace the crew that’s been involved in this type of tragedy.”
The protocol also includes providing emotional supports, a peer program and other professional services to help the crew get through it, he added.
Frustrated commuters took to social media to express their views about the delays.
“Really sorry that someone lost his/her life, it is for sure more important than people’s convenience,” Omer Yesil wrote. “On the other hand, we should have been informed earlier before onboarding to the train, we could use the subway. My 5 years old needs to be picked up from school in Maple.”
In the event of service disruptions, Llewellyn said the transit agency uses social media, media partners, and its On-the-Go alerts to communicate with customers. In addition, customers can speak with front-line staff at stations and alerts are posted to station information boards.
“We communicate early and often, as soon as information is available, and use our GO Transit Barrie Twitter handle, which is run by our customer communication team who are at the network operations centre,” he said.
