The next station is St. George. Repent your sins.

There are a few transit routes I can take to work -- all are about equally fast -- but one of them has me connect from the Bloor-Danforth line to the Yonge-University line at St. George station. In the midst of an unusual number of transit backups and delays (though happily none in my direction), I got off at the B-D platform to make the switch ... only to find that it was impossible to make it up the stairs to my next train. There were so many people waiting on the Y-U platform that the crowd was backing up down the stairs and onto the B-D platform.

It took me a moment to realize that, to get to any exit, I would also have to go through the Y-U platform. So in an emergency, everyone on the B-D platform would have been stuck. I guess we could have made our way down the tunnel, but that doesn't sound like a key to a long and prosperous life -- especially if the problem (like a fire) were in the tunnel in the first place.

Which reminds me of another St. George experience. A few months ago, I was making the same connection -- this time I got up to the Y-U platform all right, but there was a stalled train on the southbound track and a building crowd, as well as an acrid smell of smoke. I actually saw a firefighter make his way down the platform and head into the tunnel ahead of the stalled train, and noticed the smoke getting worse ... but, happily, just then my northbound train arrived and I left the problem behind (I don't know what happened, but it wasn't on the news so it must have worked out).