Metrolinx launches 'cheeky' book on how to behave on public transit

GO Transit has produced a book on how to behave on its buses and trains and the result is a "cheeky" guide with lists, diagrams and drawings of what is simply not acceptable on public transit.

The 51-page book, Unwritten Rules of Public Transit Etiquette Written Down, was officially launched at the York Concourse Hall at Union Station in downtown Toronto on Wednesday. 

According to Metrolinx, the provincial agency that runs GO Transit, the two top complaints about rider behaviour are loud talking and feet on seats. The most disgusting behaviour is people clipping toenails while riding public transit. 

Mary Proc, chief customer and marketing officer for Metrolinx, said the book is part of an ongoing social media campaign to educate transit riders about etiquette and what the agency calls "etiquette fails," habits that show a complete lack of courtesy.

"Every transit system runs passenger courtesy campaigns, and last year, the campaign we ran used humour to raise awareness about some of the bad etiquette fails that we see," Proc said on Wednesday.

Proc said the social campaign was so successful last year that Metrolinx saw a 27 per cent decrease in the number of complaints it received about poor customer behaviour. 

Metrolinx is building on that campaign by publishing the book, she said.

"It's quite cheeky," Proc added.

Book written with help from riders

The book, written with the help of GO riders, has 10 chapters on the following topics: sitting, feet, food, accessibility, parking lots, littering, noise, bus stops and platforms, doorways and aisles, and personal hygiene. 

Its humour comes through in chapters like the one on bus stops and platforms. It reads: "Sometimes the journey is the destination. Sometimes the destination is the destination. Either way, there's a destination. And bus stops and platforms are part of the journey."

Proc said customers provided many insights to Metrolinx about what constitutes unacceptable behaviour.

"It's to raise awareness of the etiquette fails that our customers are seeing most. And we wrote this book using the input that customers gave to us," Proc said. 

"Transit riders told us so we wrote the book on the annoying, totally aggravating and disrespectful habits that bug them the most," Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said in a tweet on Wednesday.

Hard copies are available at the Spacing Store for $5 each, but electronic versions can be downloaded for free in PDF form.