AS WE UNDERSTAND IT, GO Transit has been developing a contingency plan to deal with a potential walkout by the CN Rail conductors who currently staff most of the commuter service's trains.

Although 2,800 members of the United Transportation Union (UTU) went on strike last weekend, the union promised beforehand to provide conductors for the GO trains at least temporarily, and to give 72 hours' notice of any withdrawal of service.

The situation has been complicated by CN's decision to go to court in a bid to have the walkout declared illegal, on grounds it was not sanctioned by the union's president, based in the United States.

As we see it, the threatened legal action is just the sort of thing that could lead to the UTU service GO with the 72 hours' notice sooner rather than later.

GO, meanwhile, has warned that there's simply no way its buses will be able to handle the hordes of commuters who normally use the trains, and there's precious little doubt that cancellation of the trains on all but GO's Milton service, which uses CP Rail's tracks and crews, will lead to unprecedented gridlocks.

The problem would likely be worst to the west and northwest of Toronto, since there would be no trains running on GO's two busiest runs, along the lakeshore and out of Georgetown.

The Georgetown service alone has six trains morning and evening, with up to 10 double-deck coaches.

In the circumstances, this would be a perfect occasion for our own little short-line operation, the Orangeville-owned Orangeville Brampton Railway (OBR), to approach GO with an offer to help out by running its present four coaches at least as far as Streetsville (and potentially all the way to the Union Station).

The offer could be either in the form of a contingency should the CN conductors withdraw their services, or simply as a demonstration of the fact that (a) the service would be technically feasible and (b) such a service would be popular in the long term.

Of course, GO Transit would be expected to pick up the net cost of the experiment.