title: Pastoral

text: Paul Alpers, in his 1996 book, "What is Pastoral?", describes the recurring plot of pastoral literature as the lives of shepherds. With William Empson's notion of placing the complex into the simple, Alpers thus critically defines pastoral as a means of allegory. Alpers also classifies pastoral as a mode of literature, as opposed to a genre, and he defines the attitude of pastoral works maintaining a humble relationship with nature. Alpers also defines pastoral convention as the act of bringing together, and authors use this to discuss loss. He says the speakers in pastoral works are simple herdsmen dramatized in pastoral encounters. However, authors like Herrick changed the herdsmen to nymphs, maidens, and flowers. Thus, achieving a mode of simplicity but also giving objects voice. This is done by personifying objects like flowers. Moreover, authors that do this in their works are giving importance to the unimportant. Alpers talks about pastoral lyrics and love poems in particular. He says "a lyric allows its speaker to slip in and out of pastoral guise and reveal directly the sophistication which prompted him to assume it in the first place″. In other words, he claims pastorals lyrics have both pastoral and not pastoral characteristics, perhaps like in the comparisons between urban and rural, but they always give importance to and enhance on the pastoral. Alpers talks about love poems and how they can be turned into pastoral poems simply by changing words like lover to shepherd. And he mentions Shakespeare as one of the authors who did this in his works. Furthermore, Alpers says the pastoral is not only about praise for the rural and the country side. For instance, Sidney dispraises the country life in "The Garden". Pastoral can also include the urban, the court, and the social like in "L’Allegro". Alpers says that pastoral narration contradicts “normal” narrative motives and that there is a double aspect of pastoral narration: heroic poetry and worldly realities with narrative motives and conventions. And in respect to pastoral novels, Alpers says pastoral novels have different definitions and examples depending on the reader. Also, the pastoral novel differs from Theocritus and Virgil's works. He says there are pastoral novels of the country life, of the longing for the simple, and with nature as the protagonist. And says the literary category of pastoral novels is realistic and post-realistic fiction with a rural theme or subject based on traditional pastoral.


title: Pastoral

text: In "What Else Is Pastoral?", Ken Hiltner argues that Renaissance pastoral poetry is more often a form of nature writing than critics like Paul Alpers and Annabel Patterson give it credit for. He explains that even though there is a general lack of lavish description in Renaissance Pastoral, this is because they were beginning to use gestural strategies, and artists begin to develop an environmental consciousness as nature around them becomes endangered. Another argument presented in the book is that our current environmental crisis clearly has its roots in the Renaissance. To do this we are shown examples in Renaissance pastoral poetry that show a keen awareness of the urban sprawl of London contrasted to the countryside and historical records showing that many at the time were aware of the issue of urban growth and attempted to stop it.


title: John Surtees

text: John Surtees, (11 February 1934 – 10 March 2017) was a British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver. On his way to become a seven-time Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion, he won his first title in 1956, and followed with three consecutive doubles between 1958 and 1960, winning six World Championships in both the 500 and 350cc classes. Surtees then made the move to the pinnacle of Motorsport, the Formula 1 World Championship, and in 1964 made motor racing history by becoming the F1 World Champion. To this day Surtees remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. He founded the Surtees Racing Organisation team that competed as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2 and Formula 5000 from 1970 to 1978. He was also the ambassador of the Racing Steps Foundation.


title: John Surtees

text: Surtees was the son of a south-London motorcycle dealer. His father Jack Surtees was an accomplished grasstrack competitor and in 1948 was the South Eastern Centre Sidecar Champion. He had his first professional outing, which they won, in the sidecar of his father's Vincent at the age of 14. However, when race officials discovered Surtees's age, they were disqualified. He entered his first race at 15 in a grasstrack competition. In 1950, at the age of 16, he went to work for the Vincent factory as an apprentice. He first gained prominence in 1951 when he gave Norton star Geoff Duke a strong challenge in an ACU race at the Thruxton Circuit.


title: John Surtees

text: In 1955, Norton race chief Joe Craig gave Surtees his first factory sponsored ride aboard the Nortons. He finished the year by beating reigning world champion Duke at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch. However, with Norton in financial trouble and uncertain about their racing plans, Surtees accepted an offer to race for the MV Agusta factory racing team, where he soon earned the nickname "figlio del vento" (son of the wind).


title: John Surtees

text: In 1956 Surtees won the 500 cc world championship, MV Agusta's first in the senior class. In this Surtees was assisted by the FIM's decision to ban the defending champion, Geoff Duke, for six months because of his support for a riders' strike for more starting money. In the 1957 season, the MV Agustas were no match for the Gileras and Surtees battled to a third-place finish aboard a 1957 MV Agusta 500 Quattro.


title: John Surtees

text: When Gilera and Moto Guzzi withdrew from Grand Prix racing at the end of 1957, Surtees and MV Agusta went on to dominate the competition in the two larger displacement classes. In 1958, 1959 and 1960, he won 32 out of 39 races and became the first man to win the Senior TT at the Isle of Man TT three years in succession.


title: John Surtees

text: While still racing motorcycles full-time, Surtees performed a test drive in Aston Martin's DBR1 sports car in front of team manager Reg Parnell. He however continued on two wheels and did not enter car racing until the following year.


title: John Surtees

text: In 1960, at the age of 26, Surtees switched from motorcycles to cars full-time, making his Formula 1 debut racing in the 1960 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone for Team Lotus. He made an immediate impact with a second-place finish in only his second Formula One World Championship race, at the 1960 British Grand Prix, and a pole position at his third, the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix.


title: John Surtees

text: After spending the 1961 season with the Yeoman Credit Racing Team driving a Cooper T53 "Lowline" managed by Reg Parnell and the 1962 season with the Bowmaker Racing Team, still managed by Reg Parnell but now in the V8 Lola Mk4, he moved to Scuderia Ferrari in 1963 and won the World Championship for the Italian team in 1964.


title: John Surtees

text: On 25 September 1965, Surtees had a life-threatening accident at the Mosport Park Circuit (Ontario, Canada) while practising in a Lola T70 sports racing car. A front upright casting had broken. A.J. Baime in his book "Go Like Hell" says Surtees came out of the crash with one side of his body four inches shorter than the other. Doctors set most of the breaks nonsurgically, in part by physically stretching his shattered body until the right-left discrepancy was under an inch – and there it stayed.


title: John Surtees

text: The 1966 season saw the introduction of new, larger 3-litre engines to Formula One. Surtees's debut with Ferrari's new F1 car was at the 1966 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, where he qualified and finished a close second behind Jack Brabham's 3-litre Brabham BT19. A few weeks later, Surtees led the Monaco Grand Prix, pulling away from Jackie Stewart's 2-litre BRM on the straights, before the engine failed. A fortnight later Surtees survived the first lap rainstorm which eliminated half the field and won the Belgian Grand Prix.


title: John Surtees

text: Due to perennial strikes in Italy, Ferrari could afford to enter only two cars (Ferrari P3s) for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans instead of its usual entry of three prototypes. Uncertainty and confusion surrounds subsequent events and their consequences, and a number of different explanations have been offered in the decades since. The narrative explained by Ferrari at the time states that under Le Mans rules in 1966 each car was allowed only two drivers. Surtees was omitted from the driver line-up with one works Ferrari to be driven by Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti, and the other by Jean Guichet and Lorenzo Bandini. When Surtees questioned Ferrari team manager Eugenio Dragoni as to why, as the Ferrari team leader, he would not be allowed to compete, Dragoni told Surtees that he did not feel that he was fully fit to drive in a 24-hour endurance race because of the injuries he had sustained in late 1965. However, Surtees himself described things somewhat differently. In his recollection, when the pairings were announced he was to drive alongside Scarfiotti. As the faster driver of the two, Surtees argued that he should take the first stint and "try to break" the Ford opposition by driving "flat out from the start". Dragoni denied Surtees's request and insisted that Scarfiotti take the start, supposedly to please Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, Scarfiotti's uncle, who was in attendance as a spectator. Either way, the decision and subsequent lack of support from Enzo Ferrari himself were deeply upsetting to Surtees and he immediately quit the team. This decision likely cost both Ferrari and Surtees the Formula 1 Championship in 1966. Ferrari finished second to Brabham-Repco in the Constructors' Championship and Surtees finished second to Jack Brabham in the Drivers' Championship. Surtees finished the season driving for the Cooper-Maserati team, winning the last race of the season.


title: John Surtees

text: Surtees competed with a T70 in the inaugural 1966 Can-Am season, winning three races of six to become champion over other winners Dan Gurney (Lola), Mark Donohue (Lola) and Phil Hill (Chaparral) as well as the likes of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon (both in McLarens).


title: John Surtees

text: In December 1966, Surtees signed for Honda. After a promising third place in the first race in South Africa, the Honda RA273 hit a series of mechanical problems. The car was replaced by the Honda RA300 for the Italian Grand Prix, where Surtees slipstreamed Jack Brabham to take Honda's second F1 victory by 0.2 seconds. Surtees finished fourth in the 1967 Drivers' Championship.


title: John Surtees

text: The same year, Surtees drove in the "Rex Mays 300" at Riverside, near Los Angeles, in a United States Auto Club season-ending road race. This event pitted the best American drivers of the day – normally those who had cut their teeth as professional drivers on oval dirt tracks – against veteran Formula One Grand Prix drivers, including Jim Clark and Dan Gurney.


title: John Surtees

text: In 1970, Surtees formed his own race team, the Surtees Racing Organisation, and spent nine seasons competing in Formula 5000, Formula 2 and Formula 1 as a constructor. He retired from competitive driving in 1972, the same year the team had their greatest success when Mike Hailwood won the European Formula 2 Championship. The team was finally disbanded at the end of 1978.


title: John Surtees

text: For a while in the 1970s Surtees ran a motorcycle shop in West Wickham, Kent, and a Honda car dealership in Edenbridge, Kent. He continued his involvement in motorcycling, participating in classic events with bikes from his stable of vintage racing machines. He also remained involved in single-seater racing cars and held the position of chairman of A1 Team Great Britain, in the A1 Grand Prix racing series from 2005 to 2007. His son, Henry Surtees, competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, Formula Renault UK Championship and the Formula BMW UK championship for Carlin Motorsport, before he died while racing in the Formula 2 championship at Brands Hatch on 19 July 2009. In 2010, Surtees founded the Henry Surtees Foundation in his son's memory, as a charitable organization to assist victims of accidental brain injuries and to promote safety in driving and motorsport.


title: John Surtees

text: In 1996, Surtees was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. The FIM honoured him as a Grand Prix "Legend" in 2003. Already a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to motorsport.


title: John Surtees

text: In 2013 he was awarded the 2012 Segrave Trophy in recognition of multiple world championships, and being the only person to win world titles on 2 and 4 wheels.


title: John Surtees

text: Surtees married three times, first to Patricia Burke in 1962; the couple divorced in 1979. His second wife was Janis Sheara, whom he married in 1979 and they divorced in 1982. Jane Sparrow was his third wife, whom he married in 1987, and with whom he had three children, Leonora, Edwina and Henry.


title: John Surtees

text: Surtees died of respiratory failure on 10 March 2017 at St George's Hospital in London, at the age of 83. He was buried, next to his son Henry, at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Lingfield, Surrey.


title: John Surtees

text: † The 500 cc race was stopped by bad weather, and the FIM excluded the race from the World Championship.


title: Public address system

text: A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound source or recorded sound or music. PA systems are used in any public venue that requires that an announcer, performer, etc. be sufficiently audible at a distance or over a large area. Typical applications include sports stadiums, public transportation vehicles and facilities, and live or recorded music venues and events. A PA system may include multiple microphones or other sound sources, a mixing console to combine and modify multiple sources, and multiple amplifiers and loudspeakers for louder volume or wider distribution.


title: Public address system

text: Simple PA systems are often used in small venues such as school auditoriums, churches, and small bars. PA systems with many speakers are widely used to make announcements in public, institutional and commercial buildings and locations—such as schools, stadiums, and passenger vessels and aircraft. Intercom systems, installed in many buildings, have both speakers throughout a building, and microphones in many rooms so occupants can respond to announcements. PA and Intercom systems are commonly used as part of an emergency communication system.


title: Public address system

text: The term "sound reinforcement system" generally means a PA system used specifically for live music or other performances. In Britain any PA system is sometimes colloquially referred to as a Tannoy, after the company of that name, now owned by TC Electronic Group, which supplied many of the PA systems used previously in Britain.


title: Public address system

text: From the Ancient Greek era to the nineteenth century, before the invention of electric loudspeakers and amplifiers, megaphone cones were used by people speaking to a large audience, to make their voice project more to a large space or group. Megaphones are typically portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped acoustic horns used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds and direct it towards a given direction. The sound is introduced into the narrow end of the megaphone, by holding it up to the face and speaking into it. The sound projects out the wide end of the cone. The user can direct the sound by pointing the wide end of the cone in a specific direction. In the 2020s, cheerleading is one of the few fields where a nineteenth century-style cone is still used to project the voice. The device is also called “speaking-trumpet”, “bullhorn” or “loud hailer”.


title: Public address system

text: In 1910, the Automatic Electric Company of Chicago, Illinois, already a major supplier of automatic telephone switchboards, announced it had developed a loudspeaker, which it marketed under the name of the "Automatic Enunciator". Company president Joseph Harris foresaw multiple potential uses, and the original publicity stressed the value of the invention as a hotel public address system, allowing people in all public rooms to hear announcements. In June 1910, an initial "semi-public" demonstration was given to newspaper reporters at the Automatic Electric Company building, where a speaker's voice was transmitted to loudspeakers placed in a dozen locations "all over the building".


title: Public address system

text: A short time later, the Automatic Enunciator Company formed in Chicago order to market the new device, and a series of promotional installations followed. In August 1912 a large outdoor installation was made at a water carnival held in Chicago by the Associated Yacht and Power Boat Clubs of America. Seventy-two loudspeakers were strung in pairs at forty-foot (12 meter) intervals along the docks, spanning a total of one-half mile (800 meters) of grandstands. The system was used to announce race reports and descriptions, carry a series of speeches about "The Chicago Plan", and provide music between races.


title: Public address system

text: In 1913, multiple units were installed throughout the Comiskey Park baseball stadium in Chicago, both to make announcements and to provide musical interludes, with Charles A. Comiskey quoted as saying: "The day of the megaphone man has passed at our park." The company also set up an experimental service, called the Musolaphone, that was used to transmitted news and entertainment programming to home and business subscribers in south-side Chicago, but this effort was short-lived. The company continued to market the enunciators for making announcements in establishments such as hospitals, department stores, factories, and railroad stations, although the Automatic Enunciator Company was dissolved in 1926.


title: Public address system

text: Peter Jensen and Edwin Pridham of Magnavox began experimenting with sound reproduction in the 1910s. Working from a laboratory in Napa, California, they filed the first patent for a moving coil loudspeaker in 1911. Four years later, in 1915, they built a dynamic loudspeaker with a voice coil, a corrugated diaphragm and a horn measuring with a aperture. The electromagnet created a flux field of approximately 11,000 Gauss.


title: Public address system

text: Their first experiment used a carbon microphone. When the 12 V battery was connected to the system, they experienced one of the first examples of acoustic feedback, a typically unwanted effect often characterized by high-pitched sounds. They then placed the loudspeaker on the laboratory's roof, and claims say that the amplified human voice could be heard away. Jensen and Pridham refined the system and connected a phonograph to the loudspeaker so it could broadcast recorded music. They did this on a number of occasions, including once at the Napa laboratory, at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, and on December 24, 1915 at San Francisco City Hall alongside Mayor James Rolph. This demonstration was official presentation of the working system, and approximately 100,000 people gathered to hear Christmas music and speeches "with absolute distinctness".


title: Public address system

text: The first outside broadcast was made one week later, again supervised by Jensen and Pridham. On December 30, when Governor of California Hiram Johnson was too ill to give a speech in person, loudspeakers were installed at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, connected to Johnson's house some miles away by cable and a microphone, from where he delivered his speech. Jensen oversaw the governor using the microphone while Pridham operated the loudspeaker.


title: Public address system

text: The following year, Jensen and Pridham applied for a patent for what they called their "Sound Magnifying Phonograph". Over the next two years they developed their first valve amplifier. In 1919 this was standardized as a 3-stage 25 watt amplifier.


title: Public address system

text: This system was used by former US president William Howard Taft at a speech in Grant Park, Chicago, and first used by a current president when Woodrow Wilson addressed 50,000 people in San Diego, California. Wilson's speech was part of his nationwide tour to promote the establishment of the League of Nations. It was held on September 9, 1919 at City Stadium. As with the San Francisco installation, Jensen supervised the microphone and Pridham the loudspeakers. Wilson spoke into two large horns mounted on his platform, which channelled his voice into the microphone. Similar systems were used in the following years by Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt.


title: Public address system

text: By the early 1920s, Marconi had established a department dedicated to public address and began producing loudspeakers and amplifiers to match a growing demand. In 1925, George V used such a system at the British Empire Exhibition, addressing 90,000 via six long-range loudspeakers. This public use of loudspeakers brought attention to the possibilities of such technology. The 1925 Royal Air Force Pageant at Hendon Aerodrome used a Marconi system to allow the announcer to address the crowds, as well as amplify the band. In 1929, the Schneider Trophy race at Calshot Spit used a public address system that had 200 horns, weighing a total of 20 tons.


title: Public address system

text: Engineers invented the first loud, powerful amplifier and speaker systems for public address systems and movie theaters. These large PA systems and movie theatre sound systems were very large and very expensive, and so they could not be used by most touring musicians. After 1927, smaller, portable AC mains-powered PA systems that could be plugged into a regular wall socket "quickly became popular with musicians"; indeed, "... Leon McAuliffe (with Bob Wills) still used a carbon mic and a portable PA as late as 1935." During the late 1920s to mid-1930s, small portable PA systems and guitar combo amplifiers were fairly similar. These early amps had a "single volume control and one or two input jacks, field coil speakers" and thin wooden cabinets; remarkably, these early amps did not have tone controls or even an on-off switch. Portable PA systems you could plug into wall sockets appeared in the early 1930s when the introduction of electrolytic capacitors and rectifier tubes enabled economical built-in power supplies that could plug into wall outlets. Previously, amplifiers required heavy multiple battery packs.


title: Public address system

text: In the 1960s, an electric-amplified version of the megaphone, which used a loudspeaker, amplifier and a folded horn, largely replaced the basic cone-style megaphone. Small handheld, battery-powered electric megaphones are used by fire and rescue personnel, police, protesters, and people addressing outdoor audiences. With many small handheld models, the microphone is mounted at the back end of the device, and the user holds the megaphone in front of her/his mouth to use it, and presses a trigger to turn on the amplifier and loudspeaker. Larger electric megaphones may have a microphone attached by a cable, which enables a person to speak without having their face obscured by the flared horn.


title: Public address system

text: The simplest, smallest PA systems consist of a microphone, an amplifier, and one or more loudspeakers. PA systems of this type, often providing 50 to 200 watts of power, are often used in small venues such as school auditoriums, churches, and coffeehouse stages. Small PA systems may extend to an entire building, such as a restaurant, store, elementary school or office building. A sound source such as a compact disc player or radio may be connected to a PA system so that music can be played through the system. Smaller, battery-powered 12 volt systems may be installed in vehicles such as tour buses or school buses, so that the tour guide and/or driver can speak to all the passengers. Portable systems may be battery powered and/or powered by plugging the system into an electric wall socket. These may also be used for by people addressing smaller groups such as information sessions or team meetings. Battery-powered systems can be used by guides who are speaking to clients on walking tours.


title: Public address system

text: Public address systems consist of input sources (microphones, sound playback devices, etc.), amplifiers, control and monitoring equipment (e.g., LED indicator lights, VU meters, headphones), and loudspeakers. Usual input include microphones for speech or singing, direct inputs from musical instruments, and a recorded sound playback device. In non-performance applications, there may be a system that operators or automated equipment uses to select from a number of standard prerecorded messages. These input sources feed into preamplifiers and signal routers that direct the audio signal to selected zones of a facility (e.g., only to one section of a school). The preamplified signals then pass into the amplifiers. Depending on local practices, these amplifiers usually amplify the audio signals to 50 V, 70 V, or 100 V speaker line level. Control equipment monitors the amplifiers and speaker lines for faults before it reaches the loudspeakers. This control equipment is also used to separate zones in a PA system. The loudspeaker converts electrical signals into sound.


title: Public address system

text: Some PA systems have speakers that cover more than one building, extending to an entire campus of a college, office or industrial site, or an entire outdoor complex (e.g., an athletic stadium). A large PA system may also be used as an alert system during an emergency.


title: Public address system

text: Some private branch exchange (PBX) telephone systems use a paging facility that acts as a liaison between the telephone and a PA amplifier. In other systems, paging equipment is not built into the telephone system. Instead the system includes a separate paging controller connected to a trunk port of the telephone system. The paging controller is accessed as either a designated directory number or central office line. In many modern systems, the paging function is integrated into the telephone system, so the system can send announcements to the phone speakers.


title: Public address system

text: Many retailers and offices choose to use the telephone system as the sole access point for the paging system, because the features are integrated. Many schools and other larger institutions are no longer using the large, bulky microphone PA systems and have switched to telephone system paging, as it can be accessed from many different points in the school.


title: Public address system

text: "PA over IP" refers to PA paging and intercom systems that use an Internet Protocol (IP) network, instead of a central amplifier, to distribute the audio signal to paging locations across a building or campus, or anywhere else in the reach of the IP network, including the Internet. Network-attached amplifiers and intercom units are used to provide the communication function. At the transmission end, a computer application transmits a digital audio stream via the local area network, using audio from the computer's sound card inputs or from stored audio recordings. At the receiving end, either specialized intercom modules (sometimes known as IP speakers) receive these network transmissions and reproduce the analog audio signal. These are small, specialized network appliances addressable by an IP address, just like any other computer on the network.


title: Public address system

text: "Wireless Mobile Telephony (WMT) PA Systems" refers to PA paging and [intercom] systems that use any form of Wireless mobile telephony system such as GSM networks instead of a centralized amplifier to distribute the audio signal to paging locations across a building or campus, or other location. The GSM mobile Networks are used to provide the communication function. At the transmission end, a PSTN Telephone, mobile phone, VOIP phone or any other communication device that can access and make audio calls to a GSM based mobile SIM card can communicate with it. At the receiving end, a GSM transceiver receives these network transmissions and reproduce the analogue audio signal via a Power Amplifier and speaker. This was pioneered by Stephen Robert Pearson of Lancashire, England who was granted patents for the systems, which also incorporate control functionality. Using a WMT (GSM) network means that live announcements can be made to anywhere in the world where there is WMT connectivity. The patents cover all forms of WMT i.e., 2G, 3G, 4G ... ××G. A UK company called Remvox Ltd (REMote VOice eXperience) has been appointed under license to develop and manufacture products based on the technology.


title: Public address system

text: A Long-Line Public Address (LLPA) system is any public address system with a distributed architecture, normally across a wide geographic area. Systems of this type are commonly found in the rail, light rail, and metro industries, and let announcements be triggered from one or several locations to the rest of the network over low bandwidth legacy copper, normally PSTN lines using DSL modems, or media such as optical fiber, or GSM-R, or IP-based networks.


title: Public address system

text: Rail systems typically have an interface with a passenger information system (PIS) server, at each station. These are linked to train describers, which state the location of rolling stock on the network from sensors on trackside signaling equipment. The PIS invokes a stored message to play from a local or remote digital voice announcement system, or a series of message fragments to assemble in the correct order, for example: " / the / 23.30 / Great_Western_Railway / Night_Riviera_sleeper_service / from / London_Paddington / to / Penzance / ... / will depart from platform / one / this train is formed of / 12_carriages /." Messages are routed via an IP network and are played on local amplification equipment. Taken together, the PA, routing, DVA, passenger displays and PIS interface are referred to as the "customer information system (CIS)", a term often used interchangeably with "passenger information system".


title: Public address system

text: Small clubs, bars and coffeehouses use a fairly simple set-up, with front of house speaker cabinets (and subwoofers, in some cases) aimed at the audience, and monitor speaker cabinets aimed back at the performers so they can hear their vocals and instruments. In many cases, front of house speakers are elevated, either by mounting them on poles or by "flying" them from anchors in the ceiling. The Front of House speakers are elevated to prevent the sound from being absorbed by the first few rows of audience members. The subwoofers do not need to be elevated, because deep bass is omnidirectional. In the smallest coffeehouses and bars, the audio mixer may be onstage so that the performers can mix their own sound levels. In larger bars, the audio mixer may be located in or behind the audience seating area, so that an audio engineer can listen to the mix and adjust the sound levels. The adjustments to the monitor speaker mix may be made by a single audio engineer using the main mixing board, or they may be made by a second audio engineer who uses a separate mixing board.


title: Public address system

text: For popular music concerts, a more powerful and more complicated PA System is used to provide live sound reproduction. In a concert setting, there are typically two complete PA systems: the "main" system and the "monitor" system. Each system consists of a mixing board, sound processing equipment, amplifiers, and speakers. The microphones that are used to pick up vocals and amplifier sounds are routed through both the main and monitor systems. Audio engineers can set different sound levels for each microphone on the main and monitor systems. For example, a backup vocalist whose voice has a low sound level in the main mix may ask for a much louder sound level through their monitor speaker, so they can hear their singing.


title: Public address system

text: At a concert using live sound reproduction, sound engineers and technicians control the mixing boards for the "main" and "monitor" systems, adjusting tone, levels, and overall volume.


title: Public address system

text: Touring productions travel with relocatable large line-array PA systems, sometimes rented from an audio equipment hire company. The sound equipment moves from venue to venue along with various other equipment such as lighting and projection.


title: Public address system

text: All PA systems have the potential for audio feedback, which occurs when a microphone picks up sound from the speakers, which is re-amplified and sent through the speakers again. It often sounds like a loud high-pitched squeal or screech, and can occur when the volume of the system is turned up too high. Feedback only occurs when the loop gain of the feedback loop is greater than one, so it can always be stopped by reducing the volume sufficiently.


title: Public address system

text: Sound engineers take several steps to maximize gain before feedback, including keeping microphones at a distance from speakers, ensuring that directional microphones are not pointed towards speakers, keeping the onstage volume levels down, and lowering gain levels at frequencies where the feedback is occurring, using a graphic equalizer, a parametric equalizer, or a notch filter. Some 2010s-era mixing consoles and effects units have automatic feedback preventing circuits.


title: Public address system

text: Feedback prevention devices detect the start of unwanted feedback and use a precise notch filter to lower the gain of the frequencies that are feeding back. Some automated feedback detectors require the user to “set” the feedback-prone frequencies by purposely increasing gain (during a sound check) until some feedback starts to occur. This process is often referred to as "a ring out" or "an EQ" of a room/venue. The device then retains these frequencies in its memory and it stands by ready to cut them. Some automated feedback prevention devices can detect and reduce new frequencies other than those found in the sound check.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The story of how the variations came to be composed comes from an early biography of Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel:


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Forkel wrote his biography in 1802, more than 60 years after the events related, and its accuracy has been questioned. The lack of dedication on the title page also makes the tale of the commission unlikely. Goldberg's age at the time of publication (14 years) has also been cited as grounds for doubting Forkel's tale, although it must be said that he was known to be an accomplished keyboardist and sight-reader. contends that the Forkel story is entirely spurious.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Arnold Schering has suggested that the aria on which the variations are based was not written by Bach. More recent scholarly literature (such as the edition by Christoph Wolff) suggests that there is no basis for such doubts.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Rather unusually for Bach's works, the "Goldberg Variations" were published in his own lifetime, in 1741. The publisher was Bach's friend Balthasar Schmid of Nuremberg. Schmid printed the work by making engraved copper plates (rather than using movable type); thus the notes of the first edition are in Schmid's own handwriting. The edition contains various printing errors.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The term ""Clavier Ubung"" (nowadays spelled ""Klavierübung"") had been assigned by Bach to some of his previous keyboard works. Klavierübung part 1 was the six partitas, part 2 the "Italian Concerto" and "French Overture", and part 3 a series of chorale preludes for organ framed by a prelude and fugue in E major. Although Bach also called his variations ""Klavierübung"", he did not specifically designate them as the fourth in this series.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Nineteen copies of the first edition survive today. Of these, the most valuable is the (Bach's personal copy of the published score), discovered in 1974 in Strasbourg by the French musicologist Olivier Alain and now kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. This copy includes printing corrections made by the composer and additional music in the form of fourteen canons on the Goldberg ground (see below). The nineteen printed copies provide virtually the only information available to modern editors trying to reconstruct Bach's intent, as the autograph (handwritten) score has not survived. A handwritten copy of just the aria is found in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Christoph Wolff suggests on the basis of handwriting evidence that Anna Magdalena copied the aria from the autograph score around 1740; it appears on two pages previously left blank.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: On the title page, Bach specified that the work was intended for harpsichord. It is widely performed on this instrument today, though there are also a great number of performances on the piano (see Discography below). The piano was rare in Bach's day and there is no indication that Bach would have either approved or disapproved of performing the variations on this instrument.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Bach's specification is, more precisely, a two-manual harpsichord, and he indicated in the score which variations ought to be played using one hand on each manual: Variations 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27 and 28 are specified for two manuals, while variations 5, 7 and 29 are specified as playable with either one or two. With greater difficulty, the work can nevertheless be played on a single-manual harpsichord or piano.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: After a statement of the aria at the beginning of the piece, there are thirty variations. The variations do not follow the melody of the aria, but rather use its bass line and chord progression. The bass line is notated by Ralph Kirkpatrick in his performing edition as follows.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The digits above the notes indicate the specified chord in the system of figured bass; where digits are separated by comma, they indicate different options taken in different variations.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Every third variation in the series of 30 is a canon, following an ascending pattern. Thus, variation 3 is a canon at the unison, variation 6 is a canon at the second (the second entry begins the interval of a second above the first), variation 9 is a canon at the third, and so on until variation 27, which is a canon at the ninth. The final variation, instead of being the expected canon in the tenth, is a quodlibet, discussed below.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: As harpsichordist and musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick has pointed out, the variations that intervene between the canons are also arranged in a pattern. If we leave aside the initial and final material of the work (specifically, the Aria, the first two variations, the Quodlibet, and the aria da capo), the remaining material is arranged as follows. The variations found just "after" each canon are genre pieces of various types, among them three Baroque dances (4, 7, 19); a fughetta (10); a French overture (16); two ornate arias for the right hand (13, 25); and others (22, 28). The variations located "two" after each canon (5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, and 29) are what Kirkpatrick calls "arabesques"; they are variations in lively tempo with a great deal of hand-crossing. This ternary pattern—"canon", "genre piece", "arabesque"—is repeated a total of nine times, until the Quodlibet breaks the cycle.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: At the end of the thirty variations, Bach writes "Aria da Capo e fine", meaning that the performer is to return to the beginning (""da capo"") and play the aria again before concluding.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The French style of ornamentation suggests that the ornaments are supposed to be parts of the melody; however, some performers (for example Wilhelm Kempff on piano) omit some or all ornaments and present the aria unadorned.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Williams opines that this is not the theme at all, but actually the first variation (a view emphasising the idea of the work as a chaconne rather than a piece in true variation form).


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This sprightly variation contrasts markedly with the slow, contemplative mood of the aria. The rhythm in the right hand forces the emphasis on the second beat, giving rise to syncopation from bars 1 to 7. Hands cross at bar 13 from the upper register to the lower, bringing back this syncopation for another two bars. In the first two bars of the B part, the rhythm mirrors that of the beginning of the A part, but after this a different idea is introduced.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Williams sees this as a sort of polonaise. The characteristic rhythm in the left hand is also found in Bach's Partita No. 3 for solo violin, in the A major prelude from the first book of "The Well-Tempered Clavier", and in the D minor prelude of the second book. Heinz Niemüller also mentions the polonaise character of this variation.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a simple three-part contrapuntal piece in time, two voices engage in constant motivic interplay over an incessant bass line. Each section has an alternate ending to be played on the first and second repeat.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The first of the regular canons, this is a canon at the unison: the follower begins on the same note as the leader, a bar later. As with all canons of the "Goldberg Variations" (except the 27th variation, canon at the ninth), there is a supporting bass line. The time signature of and the many sets of triplets suggest a kind of a simple dance.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Like the passepied, a Baroque dance movement, this variation is in time with a preponderance of quaver rhythms. Bach uses close but not exact imitation: the musical pattern in one part reappears a bar later in another (sometimes inverted).


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is the first of the hand-crossing, two-part variations. It is in time. A rapid melodic line written predominantly in sixteenth notes is accompanied by another melody with longer note values, which features very wide leaps:


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The Italian type of hand-crossing such as is frequently found in the sonatas of Scarlatti is employed here, with one hand constantly moving back and forth between high and low registers while the other hand stays in the middle of the keyboard, playing the fast passages.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The sixth variation is a canon at the second: the follower starts a major second higher than the leader. The piece is based on a descending scale and is in time. The harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick describes this piece as having "an almost nostalgic tenderness". Each section has an alternate ending to be played on the first and second repeat.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The variation is in meter, suggesting several possible Baroque dances. In 1974, when scholars discovered Bach's own copy of the first printing of the "Goldberg Variations", they noted that over this variation Bach had added the heading "al tempo di Giga". But the implications of this discovery for modern performance have turned out to be less clear than was at first assumed. In his book "The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach" the scholar and keyboardist David Schulenberg notes that the discovery "surprised twentieth-century commentators who supposed gigues were always fast and fleeting." However, "despite the Italian terminology ["giga"], this is a [less fleet] French gigue." Indeed, he notes, the dotted rhythmic pattern of this variation (pictured) is very similar to that of the gigue from Bach's second French suite and the gigue of the "French Overture". This kind of gigue is known as a "Canary", based on the rhythm of a dance which originated from the Canary islands.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The pianist Angela Hewitt, in the liner notes to her 1999 Hyperion recording, argues that by adding the "al tempo di giga" notation, Bach was trying to caution against taking too slow a tempo, and thus turning the dance into a forlane or siciliano. She does however argue, like Schulenberg, that it is a French "gigue", not an Italian "giga" and does play it at an unhurried tempo.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is another two-part hand-crossing variation, in time. The French style of hand-crossing such as is found in the clavier works of François Couperin is employed, with both hands playing at the same part of the keyboard, one above the other. This is relatively easy to perform on a two-manual harpsichord, but quite difficult to do on a piano.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Most bars feature either a distinctive pattern of eleven sixteenth notes and a sixteenth rest, or ten sixteenth notes and a single eighth note. Large leaps in the melody occur. Both sections end with descending passages in thirty-second notes.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a canon at the third, in time. The supporting bass line is slightly more active than in the previous canons.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Variation 10 is a four-voice fughetta, with a four-bar subject heavily decorated with ornaments and somewhat reminiscent of the opening aria's melody.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The exposition takes up the whole first section of this variation (pictured). First the subject is stated in the bass, starting on the G below middle C. The answer (in the tenor) enters in bar 5, but it's a tonal answer, so some of the intervals are altered. The soprano voice enters in bar 9, but only keeps the first two bars of the subject intact, changing the rest. The final entry occurs in the alto in bar 13. There is no regular counter-subject in this fugue.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The second section develops using the same thematic material with slight changes. It resembles a counter-exposition: the voices enter one by one, all begin by stating the subject (sometimes a bit altered, like in the first section). The section begins with the subject heard once again, in the soprano voice, accompanied by an active bass line, making the bass part the only exception since it doesn't pronounce the subject until bar 25.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a virtuosic two-part toccata in time. Specified for two manuals, it is largely made up of various scale passages, arpeggios and trills, and features much hand-crossing of different kinds.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a canon at the fourth in time, of the inverted variety: the follower enters in the second bar in contrary motion to the leader.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: In the first section, the left hand accompanies with a bass line written out in repeated quarter notes, in bars 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7. This repeated note motif also appears in the first bar of the second section (bar 17, two Ds and a C), and, slightly altered, in bars 22 and 23. In the second section, Bach changes the mood slightly by introducing a few appoggiaturas (bars 19 and 20) and trills (bars 29–30).


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation is a slow, gentle and richly decorated sarabande in time. Most of the melody is written out using thirty-second notes, and ornamented with a few appoggiaturas (more frequent in the second section) and a few mordents. Throughout the piece, the melody is in one voice, and in bars 16 and 24 an interesting effect is produced by the use of an additional voice. Here are bars 15 and 16, the ending of the first section (bar 24 exhibits a similar pattern):


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a rapid two-part hand-crossing toccata in time, with many trills and other ornamentation. It is specified for two manuals and features large jumps between registers. Both features (ornaments and leaps in the melody) are apparent from the first bar: the piece begins with a transition from the G two octaves below middle C, with a lower mordent, to the G two octaves above it with a trill with initial turn.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Bach uses a loose inversion motif between the first half and the second half of this variation, "recycling" rhythmic and melodic material, passing material that was in the right hand to the left hand, and loosely (selectively) inverting it.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Contrasting it with Variation 15, Glenn Gould described this variation as "certainly one of the giddiest bits of neo-Scarlatti-ism imaginable."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a canon at the fifth in time. Like Variation 12, it is in contrary motion with the leader appearing inverted in the second bar. This is the first of the three variations in G minor, and its melancholic mood contrasts sharply with the playfulness of the previous variation. Pianist Angela Hewitt notes that there is "a wonderful effect at the very end [of this variation]: the hands move away from each other, with the right suspended in mid-air on an open fifth. This gradual fade, leaving us in awe but ready for more, is a fitting end to the first half of the piece."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Glenn Gould said of this variation, "It's the most severe and rigorous and beautiful canon ... the most severe and beautiful that I know, the canon in inversion at the fifth. It's a piece so moving, so anguished—and so uplifting at the same time—that it would not be in any way out of place in the St. Matthew's Passion; matter of fact, I've always thought of Variation 15 as the perfect Good Friday spell."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The entire set of variations can be seen as being divided into two halves, clearly marked by this grand French overture, commencing with particularly emphatic opening and closing chords. It consists of a slow prelude with dotted rhythms with a following fugue-like contrapuntal section. Here Bach follows his custom of beginning the second half of a major collection with a movement in French style, as with the earlier "Clavier-Übung" volumes, in both parts of the "Well-Tempered Clavier", in the "Musical Offering" (#4 of the numbered canons) and in the early version of the "Art of Fugue" (#7 of P 200).


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation is another two-part virtuosic toccata. Peter Williams sees echoes of Antonio Vivaldi and Domenico Scarlatti here. Specified for two manuals, the piece features hand-crossing. It is in time and usually played at a moderately fast tempo. Rosalyn Tureck is one of the very few performers who recorded slow interpretations of the piece. In making his 1981 re-recording of the "Goldberg Variations", Glenn Gould considered playing this variation at a slower tempo, in keeping with the tempo of the preceding variation (Variation 16), but ultimately decided not to because "Variation 17 is one of those rather skittish, slightly empty-headed collections of scales and arpeggios which Bach indulged when he wasn't writing sober and proper things like fugues and canons, and it just seemed to me that there wasn't enough substance to it to warrant such a methodical, deliberate, Germanic tempo."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a canon at the sixth in time. The canonic interplay in the upper voices features many suspensions. Commenting on the structure of the canons of the "Goldberg Variations", Glenn Gould cited this variation as the extreme example of "deliberate duality of motivic emphasis ... the canonic voices are called upon to sustain the passacaille role which is capriciously abandoned by the bass." Nicholas Kenyon calls Variation 18 "an imperious, totally confident movement which must be among the most supremely logical pieces of music ever written, with the strict imitation to the half-bar providing ideal impetus and a sense of climax."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This is a dance-like three-part variation in time. The same sixteenth note figuration is continuously employed and variously exchanged between each of the three voices. This variation incorporates the rhythmic model of variation 13 (complementary exchange of quarter and sixteenth notes) with variations 1 and 2 (syncopations).


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation is a virtuosic two-part toccata in time. Specified for two manuals, it involves rapid hand-crossing. The piece consists mostly of variations on the texture introduced during its first eight bars, where one hand plays a string of eighth notes and the other accompanies by plucking sixteenth notes after each eighth note. To demonstrate this, here are the first two bars of the first section:


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The second of the three minor key variations, variation 21 has a tone that is somber or even tragic, which contrasts starkly with variation 20. The bass line here is one of the most eloquent found in the variations, to which Bach adds chromatic intervals that provide tonal shadings. This variation is a canon at the seventh in time; Kenneth Gilbert sees it as an allemande despite the lack of anacrusis. The bass line begins the piece with a low note, proceeds to a slow lament bass and only picks up the pace of the canonic voices in bar 3:


title: Goldberg Variations

text: A similar pattern, only a bit more lively, occurs in the bass line in the beginning of the second section, which begins with the opening motif inverted.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation features four-part writing with many imitative passages and its development in all voices but the bass is much like that of a fugue. The only specified ornament is a trill which is performed on a whole note and which lasts for two bars (11 and 12).


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The ground bass on which the entire set of variations is built is heard perhaps most explicitly in this variation (as well as in the Quodlibet) due to the simplicity of the bass voice.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Another lively two-part virtuosic variation for two manuals, in time. It begins with the hands chasing one another, as it were: the melodic line, initiated in the left hand with a sharp striking of the G above middle C, and then sliding down from the B one octave above to the F, is offset by the right hand, imitating the left at the same pitch, but a quaver late, for the first three bars, ending with a small flourish in the fourth:


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This pattern is repeated during bars 5–8, only with the left hand imitating the right one, and the scales are ascending, not descending. We then alternate between hands in short bursts written out in short note values until the last three bars of the first section. The second section starts with this similar alternation in short bursts again, then leads to a dramatic section of alternating thirds between hands. Williams, marvelling at the emotional range of the work, asks: "Can this really be a variation of the same theme that lies behind the adagio no 25?"


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation is a canon at the octave, in time. The leader is answered both an octave below and an octave above; it is the only canon of the variations in which the leader alternates between voices in the middle of a section.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Variation 25 is the third and last variation in G minor; it is marked adagio in Bach's own copy and is in time. The melody is written out predominantly in sixteenth and thirty-second notes, with many chromaticisms. This variation generally lasts longer than any other piece of the set.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Wanda Landowska famously described this variation as "the black pearl" of the "Goldberg Variations". Williams writes that "the beauty and dark passion of this variation make it unquestionably the emotional high point of the work", and Glenn Gould said that "the appearance of this wistful, weary cantilena is a master-stroke of psychology." In an interview with Gould, Tim Page described this variation as having an "extraordinary chromatic texture"; Gould agreed: "I don't think there's been a richer lode of enharmonic relationships any place between Gesualdo and Wagner."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: In sharp contrast with the introspective and passionate nature of the previous variation, this piece is another virtuosic two-part toccata, joyous and fast-paced. Underneath the rapid arabesques, this variation is basically a sarabande. Two time signatures are used, for the incessant melody written in sixteenth notes and for the accompaniment in quarter and eighth notes; during the last five bars, both hands play in .


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Variation 27 is the last canon of the piece, at the ninth and in time. This is the only canon where two manuals are specified not due to hand-crossing difficulties, and the only pure canon of the work, because it does not have a bass line.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation is a two-part toccata in time that employs a great deal of hand crossing. Trills are written out using thirty-second notes and are present in most of the bars. The piece begins with a pattern in which each hand successively picks out a melodic line while also playing trills. Following this is a section with both hands playing in contrary motion in a melodic contour marked by sixteenth notes (bars 9–12). The end of the first section features trills again, in both hands now and mirroring one another:


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The second section starts and closes with the contrary motion idea seen in bars 9–12. Most of the closing bars feature trills in one or both hands.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This variation consists mostly of heavy chords alternating with sections of brilliant arpeggios shared between the hands. It is in time. A rather grand variation, it adds an air of resolution after the lofty brilliance of the previous variation. Glenn Gould states that variations 28 and 29 present the only case of "motivic collaboration or extension between successive variations."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: This quodlibet is based on multiple German folk songs, two of which are "Ich bin solang nicht bei dir g'west, ruck her, ruck her" ("I have so long been away from you, come closer, come closer") and "Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben, hätt mein' Mutter Fleisch gekocht, wär ich länger blieben" ("Cabbage and turnips have driven me away, had my mother cooked meat, I'd have opted to stay"). The others remain unknown. The "Kraut und Rüben" theme, under the title of "La Capricciosa", had previously been used by Dieterich Buxtehude for his thirty-two partite in G major, BuxWV 250.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Bach's biographer Forkel explains the Quodlibet by invoking a custom observed at Bach family reunions (Bach's relatives were almost all musicians):


title: Goldberg Variations

text: As soon as they were assembled a chorale was first struck up. From this devout beginning they proceeded to jokes which were frequently in strong contrast. That is, they then sang popular songs partly of comic and also partly of indecent content, all mixed together on the spur of the moment. ... This kind of improvised harmonizing they called a Quodlibet, and not only could laugh over it quite whole-heartedly themselves, but also aroused just as hearty and irresistible laughter in all who heard them.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: Forkel's anecdote (which is likely to be true, given that he was able to interview Bach's sons), suggests fairly clearly that Bach meant the Quodlibet to be a joke.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: A note-for-note repeat of the aria at the beginning. Williams writes that the work's "elusive beauty ... is reinforced by this return to the Aria. ... no such return can have a neutral "Affekt". Its melody is made to stand out by what has gone on in the last five variations, and it is likely to appear wistful or nostalgic or subdued or resigned or sad, heard on its repeat as something coming to an end, the same notes but now final."


title: Goldberg Variations

text: When Bach's personal copy of the printed edition of the "Goldberg Variations" (see above) was discovered in 1974, it was found to include an appendix in the form of fourteen canons built on the first eight bass notes from the aria. It is speculated that the number 14 refers to the ordinal values of the letters in the composer's name: B(2) + A(1) + C(3) + H(8) = 14. Among those canons, the eleventh and the thirteenth are first versions of BWV 1077 and BWV 1076; the latter is included in the famous portrait of Bach painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in 1746.


title: Goldberg Variations

text: The "Goldberg Variations" has been reworked freely by many performers, changing either the instrumentation, the notes, or both. The Italian composer Busoni prepared a greatly altered transcription for piano. According to the art critic Michael Kimmelman, "Busoni shuffled the variations, skipping some, then added his own rather voluptuous coda to create a three-movement structure; each movement has a distinct, arcing shape, and the whole becomes a more tightly organized drama than the original." Other arrangements include:


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven million across an area over stretching from London in the west to Peterborough in the east, and from Barrie in the north to Niagara Falls in the south. In , the system had a ridership of . GO Transit operates diesel-powered double-decker trains and coach buses, on routes that connect with all local and some long-distance inter-city transit services in its service area.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit began regular passenger service on May 23, 1967, as a part of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Since then, it has grown from a single train line to seven lines, and expanded to include complementary bus service. GO Transit has been constituted in a variety of public-sector configurations. Today, it is an operating division of Metrolinx, a provincial Crown agency with overall responsibility for integrative transportation planning within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and is projected to grow dramatically with electrification, increased frequency and new stations through the GO Expansion, which is scheduled to be completed in phases through 2025-2032.


title: GO Transit

text: Cities in and around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) expanded greatly during the 1950s, influenced by growth in immigration and industrialization. Much of the existing commuter service was provided by the Canadian National Railway (CN), which faced mounting pressure to expand its service beyond the Lakeshore trains it ran between Hamilton in the west and Danforth in the east, to Toronto; however, CN lacked the financial and physical capital to do this. Real improved commuter service was not considered until the 1962 Metropolitan Toronto and Region Transportation Study, which examined land use and traffic in the newly created Metropolitan Toronto. The idea of GO Transit was created out of fear of becoming lost in years of planning; it was "approached as a test, but recognized to be a permanent service". In May 1965, the government of Ontario granted permission to proceed with the launch of Canada's first specially-designed commuter rail service, at a cost of (CA$ in dollars).


title: GO Transit

text: Government of Ontario Transit (later shortened to "GO Transit") started as a three-year long experiment on May 23, 1967, running single-deck trains powered by diesel locomotives in push-pull configuration on a single rail line along Lake Ontario's shoreline. GO Train service ran throughout the day from Oakville to Pickering with limited rush hour train service to Hamilton. The experiment proved to be extremely popular; GO Transit carried its first million riders during its first four months, and averaged 15,000 per day soon after. This line, now divided as the Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West lines, is the keystone corridor of GO Transit. Expansion of rail service continued in the 1970s and 1980s, aimed at developing ridership in with the introduction of the Georgetown (now Kitchener) line in 1974 and the Richmond Hill line in 1978. The Milton GO Train line opened in 1981, followed by the Bradford (now Barrie) and Stouffville lines a year later, establishing GO Transit's present-day service of seven rail corridors.


title: GO Transit

text: Other than establishing new rail corridors, GO Transit introduced the Bombardier BiLevel Coaches in 1979, in order to increase the number of passengers carried per train. These unique rail cars were developed in partnership with Bombardier Transportation. Also in 1979, the former Bay Street GO concourse at Union Station was built to accommodate these additional passengers. GO Bus service began on September 8, 1970, extending the original Lakeshore line to Hamilton and Oshawa, as well as providing service north to Newmarket and Barrie. It eventually became a full-fledged network in its own right after 1989, feeding rail service and serving communities beyond the reach of existing trains.


title: GO Transit

text: Near the end of 1982, Ontario Minister of Transportation and Communications James W. Snow announced the launch of GO-ALRT (Advanced Light Rail Transit), an interregional light rail transit program providing (1980 dollars) of infrastructure. Although this plan was not implemented, certain key objectives from it were established in other ways: additional stations were built, all-day service to Whitby and Burlington was established and networks of buses and trains interconnected the network.


title: GO Transit

text: GO extended limited rush hour train service on the Bradford, Georgetown and both Lakeshore lines and began offering off-peak service on the Milton line in 1990. Train service was also extended to Burlington on the Lakeshore West line in 1992. In a series of cost-cutting measures, then–Ontario Premier Bob Rae announced a "temporary" reduction in spending on services, causing all of the expansions of the 1990s to be reduced or eliminated.


title: GO Transit

text: All day train service was restored from Burlington to Whitby, and peak service was finally brought to Oshawa in 2000. A large initiative to expand the GO Transit network, under the "GO Transit Rail Improvement Plan", or "GO TRIP", started in the mid-2000s. $1billion was invested in multiple rail and bus projects, making it the largest commuter rail project in Canadian history. This was later dwarfed by a further slate of new GO infrastructure proposed in MoveOntario 2020, the provincial transit plan announced by Premier Dalton McGuinty in the leadup to the 2007 provincial election. With re-investment in regional transit, GO experienced growth in its train network: all day service was restored to Oshawa in 2006 and Aldershot in 2007; service was expanded to Barrie South in 2007, to Lincolnville in 2008 and to Kitchener in 2011; and an excursion train now operates on summer weekends to Niagara Falls. This service was later expanded to all year round.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit also went through three major reconfigurations. In January 1997, the province announced it would transfer funding responsibility for GO Transit to GTHA municipalities. The Greater Toronto Services Board, composed of regional municipality chairs, city mayors and municipal councillors, was created as a municipal agency in January 1999, and GO Transit became an arm of this agency in August 1999. However, then-Premier Mike Harris announced the province would re-assume funding responsibility for GO Transit two years later, and this was completed with the abolition of the Greater Toronto Services Board on January 1, 2002. The Greater Toronto Transportation Authority was created in 2006, with the responsibilities of co-ordinating, planning, financing and developing integrated transit in the GTHA. This agency was merged with GO Transit in 2009 under the name Metrolinx. GO Transit continued as an operating division alongside two other major initiatives: the Union Pearson Express and Presto card.


title: GO Transit

text: As part of the 2011 provincial election, Premier Dalton McGuinty made a campaign pledge to provide two-way, full-day train service on all corridors. Metrolinx continues to plan for this service expansion, which is now known as Regional Express Rail, in likeness to the service of a similar name in France. Part of Metrolinx's Big Move regional transportation plan, it is estimated to cost and serve 30million additional riders by 2031. Other possible future rail service extensions identified in GO Transit's 2020 plan include Niagara Region, Bolton, Brantford, Peterborough and Uxbridge. Metrolinx also announced plans in January 2011 to electrify the Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East and Kitchener rail lines, as well as the Union Pearson Express.


title: GO Transit

text: In 2021, Metrolinx announced a pilot service to London, Ontario, with one train towards Toronto in the morning and one train returning to London in the evening. At this time, the Presto card cannot be used for such trips and riders must pre-purchase digital tickets in advance.


title: GO Transit

text: Improvements are being made to Union Station, which is the busiest passenger transportation facility in Canada, and is expected to have its current passenger traffic double in the next 10 to 15 years. Improvements underway include a new roof and glass atrium covering the platforms and railway tracks, new passenger concourses, additional staircases and vertical access points and general visual improvements to the station. Other longer term options such as a second downtown station and/or connections to a future Relief Subway Line are also being studied to meet future demand.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit is currently undergoing the GO Expansion, a project to improve GO Transit train service by adding all-day, two-way service to the inner portions of the Barrie line, Kitchener line and the Stouffville line, and by increasing frequency of train service on various lines to every 15 minutes or better on five of the corridors, with several new stations being built both within Toronto and throughout the GTHA. This will be achieved with the electrification of at least part of the Lakeshore East line, Lakeshore West line, Barrie line, Kitchener line and Stouffville line.<ref name="Metrolinx-2022/04/13"></ref> GO Transit will increase the number of train trips per week from 1,500 (as of 2015) to about 2,200 by 2020 and expand to 10,500 weekly trips upon completion. Most of the extra trips will be in off-peak hours and on weekends. The expanded services, new infrastructure and electrification is projected to roll out in phases between 2025 and 2030. The 10-year regional express rail plan will cost $13.5 billion and will require of new track, including new bridges and tunnels.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit primarily serves the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area–the cities of Toronto and Hamilton and the surrounding regions of Halton, Peel, York and Durham. GO Transit's lines extend into the nearby Niagara and Waterloo Regions, the cities of Brantford and Peterborough, and Simcoe, Dufferin and Wellington counties—an area largely coextensive with the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Under the provincial charter, GO Transit is permitted to serve cities elsewhere in Ontario, but has no plans of doing so.


title: GO Transit

text: In total, GO trains and buses serve a population of 7million in an area radiating in places more than from downtown Toronto. Present extrema are Brantford and Kitchener to the west; Orangeville, Barrie and Beaverton to the north; Peterborough and Newcastle to the east; and Niagara Falls to the south.


title: GO Transit

text: The GO system map shows seven train lines (or corridors), all departing from Toronto's Union Station and mostly named respectively after the outer terminus of train service:


title: GO Transit

text: Although colours are assigned in a consistent fashion to each line in all official media, in colloquial parlance lines are only ever referred to by their names. Buses are numbered in blocks of 10, corresponding to the nearest train line, with the 40s and 50s reserved for express services along the 407 ETR corridor which does not have a corresponding train line.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit's commuter rail services carry the large majority of its overall ridership. Until 2012, five GO Train lines operated only during weekday rush hour periods in the peak direction (inbound towards Union Station in the morning and outbound in the afternoons and early evenings), with off-peak service on these routes being provided solely by buses. Since then, partial off-peak train service has been added to three of these lines. The present off-peak service is as follows:


title: GO Transit

text: The Richmond Hill and Milton lines continue to operate during rush hours only, although there has been an increasing number of trips on these lines in recent years. As part of the Regional Express Rail plan, there are plans to eventually offer two-way, all-day 15-minute service on the central sections of the remaining five lines. Nevertheless, rush-hour service accounts for over 90 per cent of GO Train ridership.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit's rolling stock uses push-pull equipment. Its passenger car fleet is composed entirely of Bombardier BiLevel Coaches built in Thunder Bay, Ontario. These double-decker coaches, which have an elongated-octagon shape, were designed in the mid-1970s for GO Transit by Hawker Siddeley Canada as a more efficient replacement for GO's original single-deck coaches, built by the same company. Later coaches were manufactured by Can-Car/UTDC and the most recent coaches are produced by Bombardier Transportation, who now owns the designs and manufacturing facilities. GO Transit owns approximately 700 BiLevel Coaches, which are also used by a number of other commuter railways across North America. They have a seating capacity of 162 people per coach, or 1,944 per train. All upper levels of the coaches on rush hour trains are designated "Quiet Zones".


title: GO Transit

text: The coaches are primarily hauled by MPI MPXpress series locomotives. The current model, the 4000-horsepower MP40PH-3C, is more powerful than their predecessors, the EMD F59PH. They are capable of pulling or pushing trains of 12 coaches instead of 10. More than 60 of these locomotives have been ordered since their introduction in 2006, with a further 16 types of an even more powerful model, the 5400-horsepower MP54AC, to enter service in coming years. Opposite the locomotive, trains are bookended by cab cars, which are coaches with driver controls incorporated into them. While most of them closely resemble ordinary coaches, GO Transit began upgrading their rail fleet with newly designed, more crashworthy cab cars in the summer of 2015, incorporating an improved visibility, safety features and comfort for train crews.


title: GO Transit

text: Rolling stock is maintained at the Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility, located west of Mimico station in Toronto and also at the newer Whitby Rail Maintenance Facility. The Willowbrook facility occupies the Willowbrook Yard, a historical freight yard established by Grand Trunk Railway in 1910. GO Transit acquired the Willowbrook Yard from Canadian National sometime after its inception, and built and expanded the Willowbrook facility onsite to maintain the expanding fleet. GO Transit built a second maintenance facility covering in Whitby to accommodate additional trains for its upcoming Regional Express Rail project, and was completed by the end of 2017.


title: GO Transit

text: GO has always owned its locomotives and coaches, but its trackage used to be owned entirely by Canada's two major commercial railways: the large majority by the Canadian National Railway (CN) and the remainder (the current Milton line) by Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). In 1988, as part of expanding service east of Pickering, GO built its first section of self-owned purpose-built trackage. From 1998 until 2009, GO owned only six per cent of the railway trackage on which it operated. Starting in 2009, Metrolinx incrementally acquired further trackage from the two commercial railways in order to improve GO service. As of 2014, Metrolinx has complete ownership of the Barrie, Stouffville and Lakeshore East lines, and a majority of the Lakeshore West, Richmond Hill, and Kitchener lines. CP still owns most of the Milton line. This puts Metrolinx ownership at 69 per cent of GO Transit's trackage.


title: GO Transit

text: Each train runs with a three-person crew: two operators control the train from the cab at the front end of the train and handle related operations, while a third crew member is the Customer Service Ambassador. Stationed in a designated car in the middle of each train, the Customer Service Ambassador operates the doors and wheelchair ramp, makes station stop announcements, and is dedicated to assisting customers on board. Alstom Transport is responsible for providing train operations, taking over from Bombardier Transportation in 2021. GO trains achieve on-time performance of approximately 95 per cent, and a refund will be provided if a train is more than 15 minutes late, with some conditions.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Bus service consists of a combination of routes, many of which stand in for train service when it is not operating and/or which extend the reach of train service to communities beyond their terminal. Other GO buses are independent of rail services, such as the Highway 407 series of routes, which provides an orbital-type service that encircles Toronto proper and makes connections between all train lines. There are also routes that serve Pearson International Airport, seasonal destinations such as several colleges and universities. The vast majority of GO train stations have connecting GO bus service, of which almost all the exceptions are situated within Toronto proper. There are also 16 bus terminals served by GO buses, many of which provide local transit connections, as well as intermediate stops and ticket agencies.<ref name="08/09 Report"></ref>


title: GO Transit

text: The first buses operated by GO Transit, a suburban variant of the GM New Look bus, were unveiled at Queen's Park on August 11, 1970, about a month before commencing operations on its expanded services east, west and north of Toronto. Operated by Gray Coach, a pilot program to test them was conducted in Pickering before they entered service on 8 September 1970. Later buses included a combination of single-door, suburban-type transit buses built by Orion Bus Industries and New Flyer, and single-level highway coaches built by Prevost Car and Motor Coach Industries (MCI, now a subsidiary of New Flyer).


title: GO Transit

text: Today, GO Transit operates a combination of single-level coach buses and commuter-type double-decker buses. All buses are equipped with bike racks and are wheelchair accessible. Most of the older buses in the fleet are , single-level D4500CT coach buses built by Motor Coach Industries, which can seat 57 people and features a platform lift. The first models of this type entered service in 2001 and orders have continued until 2015. In April 2008, GO began operating Enviro 500 double-decker buses built by British manufacturer Alexander Dennis in the United Kingdom. These buses come in three different designs differing mainly in their size and height. All double deckers have a low-floor design and a wheelchair ramp at the front door.


title: GO Transit

text: The first two batches of double deckers have a height of , too tall to meet many height standards set by the provincial Ministry of Transportation. Thus, they are restricted to routes which avoid low bridges and underpasses. In particular, they are found exclusively on routes on the Highway 407 and Highway 403 corridors, providing service between Peel and York Regions.


title: GO Transit

text: In 2012, GO ordered new Enviro500 double-decker units for its fleet. Designated as "Go-Anywhere" models, they have a redesigned front end, based on the Enviro400 (and which would later form the basis for the global Enviro500 MMC refreshed design), and a height of , lower than the previous models. The lower height allows these buses to meet many more clearance standards as a result and are used on a wider variety of routes, including those that travel on Highway 401. Three additional batches of "Go-Anywhere" Enviro500s were ordered until 2015.


title: GO Transit

text: Despite the lower height, these buses are still too high to fit in a number of GO terminals, namely Hamilton, Yorkdale, York Mills, and Union Station. Beginning in 2016, GO Transit began placing further orders of Enviro500 double-deckers. These buses, designed specifically for the GO Transit network and designated as "Super-Lo", have an even lower height of , low enough to operate on virtually the entire GO bus network. They also have a longer length than previous orders, being long (the same as its coach buses), and dedicated space for luggage at the rear. The chassis for these vehicles are being locally assembled at a newly established facility in Vaughan, creating up to 30 new full-time jobs.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit stations are designed to provide seamless and barrier-free connections between its trains and buses. They include amenities such as elevators, washrooms, parking, pay phones, ticket vending machines, ticket sale kiosks and automated teller machines. All GO stations have Presto card readers. Most bus terminals are also served with a ticket sales booth or vending machine. As of 2016, the capital costs of building a GO Transit train station is about $50 to .


title: GO Transit

text: Most GO stations include large commuter parking lots, some of which have recently included large parking structures, and also include onsite bus loops for buses making timed connections to GO Buses.


title: GO Transit

text: Some GO train stations are shared with Union Pearson Express (commuter train services from Toronto Union Station to Pearson Airport), Via Rail (Canada's national passenger rail services) and Amtrak (which offers passenger train service to the United States). GO also connects with fifteen other municipal transit providers, such as the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and York Region Transit (YRT), as well as several long-distance intercity bus services, such as Ontario Northland, Megabus, TOK Coachlines and United States-bound Greyhound Lines services. Metrolinx calls many of these transfer points between services mobility hubs, and it has made them a priority as it moves forward with "The Big Move" regional transportation plan.


title: GO Transit

text: On an average weekday, GO runs 322 train trips carrying 206,167 riders, and 2,386 bus trips carrying 48,477 passengers. This adds up to 254,644 passengers throughout the entire system. In 2017, GO Transit ridership totalled 68.5million, and if expansion plans are realized, is projected to total over 200million by 2055.


title: GO Transit

text: At least 91 per cent of the train ridership is to and from Union Station in downtown Toronto, while about 70% of all bus passengers travel to and from the City of Toronto. The average trip taken by a passenger is long. Most GO Transit commuters have a private vehicle available to them for their commute, but choose to use GO Transit instead. About 80% of train commuters and 60% of bus commuters choose GO Transit over driving. Over half of GO's ridership occurs on the Lakeshore West and East lines, which can be attributed to the almost continuous development along their corridors, as well as being the only two lines with two way, all day service since their inception. This is followed by the Milton line, carrying almost 14% of all ridership. Other corridors carry 4–11% of riders each.


title: GO Transit

text: Fares on the network are based on a zone tariff set between two specified points by GO Transit, and the type of passenger using the ticket. Tickets are sold for single trip, or passes for one day or one month. Tickets can be used on a GO train, bus, or a combination of both. They can be purchased at train stations, bus terminals and ticket agencies. Passenger categories exist for adults, youth, students, seniors and groups. As of March 9, 2019, passengers aged 12 and under ride GO Transit for free.


title: GO Transit

text: The Presto card, available on all GO trains and buses, is a unified smart card-based payment system used throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Presto is a sister operating division of Metrolinx and the card can also be used on numerous local transit agencies in the GTHA such as the Toronto Transit Commission and York Region Transit as well as on OC Transpo in Ottawa. As of March 14, 2022, free transfers to most connecting local transit systems throughout the GTHA (except TTC) are included with the GO Transit fare.


title: GO Transit

text: The Presto system allows passengers to load money on a reloadable card. Passengers pay their fare by "tapping" on and off on busses and trains. With each tap, the system calculates the fare for the ride, and it is deducted from the balance of the card. The card can also be linked to a credit or debit card and set on autoload, so that it automatically adds a certain amount of money as soon as the balance decreases past a certain level.


title: GO Transit

text: Since August 11, 2022, contactless credit cards & their associated mobile wallets such as Apple and Google Pay have been accepted on GO Transit. These are used in a similar fashion to PRESTO cards, in which a passenger taps on and off with their credit card.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Trains use a "proof-of-payment" policy where the fare system is run on an "honour system". Passengers are required to carry a valid GO paper ticket or pass, digital mobile ticket or pass, a validated credit card or mobile wallet or Presto card to prove that they paid for their fares. Passengers may be subject to random fare inspections at any time during travel. This system is designed to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Enforcement of this system is carried out via Metrolinx's By-law No. 2 that, by reference to the "Provincial Offences Act", imposes a fine for fare evasion.


title: GO Transit

text: If a child under 12 is alone on the transit vehicles, they must show valid ID such as a Birth Certificate, Student ID, etc.


title: GO Transit

text: The GO Transit logo has remained largely unchanged since the agency was founded. The design was created by Gagnon/Valkus, a Montreal-based design firm that was also responsible for the corporate identities of Canadian National and Hydro-Québec. The firm's team wanted to create a unified logo using the initials of the Government of Ontario ("GO"), via two circles with a "T" incorporated into it. Lead designer Frank Fox described the creation of the logo as "a happy accident. More or less, we had this feeling among us that this couldn't be true. We went off trying many other solutions, but nothing else was good enough."


title: GO Transit

text: The logo has since become woven into the cityscape of Toronto, and is a prominent identifier of the agency. As one graphic design expert stated, it achieved "an enviable goal that most graphic designers strive to accomplish with any logo they design". Only one minor revision was made after the original version was unveiled: while the "G" and "O" used to touch each other, a gap now exists with a bolder white "T" to enhance them. The primary corporate colour was known as "GO Green", matched the green on Ontario Highway signs, and was used on all vehicles, signage, and printed material. In 2013, GO introduced a two-tone colour scheme that changed the primary colour to a darker green, and added a second lighter apple green. The changes were made to better harmonize with the branding of Metrolinx and its other operating divisions, as well as to improve its display digitally.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit By-law No. 2 is a document of rules and regulations governing actions of passengers and employees while on GO Transit property, which includes land, facilities, trains, buses and other structures. Besides issues relating to fares, the by-law specifies permissible and prohibited actions such as staying in designated safe areas, commercial or distribution activities, parking and other personal actions that promote or endanger the safety of passengers. It covers items like paying fares, parking, general behaviour, fines and rule enforcement. These rules can be enforced by a "proper authority" which is defined as "an employee or agent of GO Transit wearing a GO Transit uniform [or] carrying an identification card issued by GO Transit, a GO Transit Special Constable, or a municipal police officer". Any contravention of the by-law can result in a fine under the "Provincial Offences Act".


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit employs Transit Safety Officers, who are designated special constables that patrol Metrolinx properties, and are responsible for ensuring passenger safety and protection, enforcing relevant laws or by-laws, offering customer assistance and supporting local police, fire and ambulance, and promoting railway safety. Under the "Police Services Act", Transit Safety Officers are appointed by the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, with approval from the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. In addition to By-law No. 2, they have the authority to enforce other certain federal and provincial laws.


title: GO Transit

text: GO Transit also employs Provincial Offences Officers, known as Revenue Protection Officers, to enforce the proof-of-payment system. GO Transit operates a 24-hour Transit Safety Communications centre operated by Communications Operators. They are mainly responsible for taking calls from the public with regards to actionable complaints, dispatching special constables or relevant emergency services to all areas serviced by Metrolinx.


title: GO Transit

text: On December 12, 1975, a westbound GO train collided with a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus that was stalled on a crossing at St. Clair and Midland Avenue. Nine passengers on the bus were killed and 20 others were injured. This was the worst accident in terms of loss of life in the history of the TTC and GO Transit systems. The level crossing was replaced by an overpass a few years later.


title: GO Transit

text: On November 17, 1997, an empty train collided with another train waiting to depart Union Station with over 800 passengers on board. The empty train's locomotive engineer was at the opposite end of the train, and the conductor at the leading end failed in his attempts to relay the situation to the engineer or apply the emergency brake. The two trains then collided at a speed of , causing a partial derailment and minor injuries to fifty-four passengers and two crew members. The subsequent Transportation Safety Board report made recommendations, including making emergency brakes more accessible and that the locomotive engineer must always control the train from the leading end in the Union Station Rail Corridor.


title: GO Transit

text: On July 8, 2013, a Richmond Hill–bound GO train encountered flash flooding in the Don Valley when a record-breaking 123 mm rain storm fell over a few hours in Toronto area. As the crew worked to reverse the direction of the train back to Union Station, flood waters continued to rise and submerged the entire track and the train itself began to flood. Approximately 1,400 passengers on board had to be rescued by boat.


title: GO Transit

text: On January 14, 2015, a GO bus on Highway 407 near Weston Road hit a guard rail and rolled into a ditch. One passenger was ejected and crushed to death, and another two in addition to the bus driver were injured. On March 2, 2015, the GO Transit driver was charged with careless driving causing death.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Elasti-Girl (also known as Elasti-Woman) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as a member of the Doom Patrol. Created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Bruno Premiani, the character first appeared in "My Greatest Adventure" #80 (June 1963).


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Elasti-Girl has appeared in numerous cartoon television shows and films. She made her first live-action appearance on the DC Universe and HBO Max series "Titans", played by April Bowlby, who reprised the role for the series "Doom Patrol".


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Elasti-Girl was created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani. She first appeared in "My Greatest Adventure" #80 (June 1963). According to Drake, the issue's co-writer Bob Haney was not brought on to the project until after Elasti-Girl was created.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Rita Farr is an Olympic swimming gold medalist turned Hollywood actress who is exposed to unusual volcanic gases while shooting a film in Africa. When Farr recovers, she discovers that she can expand or shrink her body at will—from hundreds of feet tall to mere inches in height. When she gains greater control of her powers, she discovers that she can enlarge one limb at a time.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Although not physically disfigured, Rita initially has no control over her size changes, is considered a freak and a menace, and becomes a recluse, leaving her Hollywood career in ruins. However, Rita is approached by Dr. Niles Caulder (also known as The Chief) who offers her a place among fellow "freaks" attempting to use their powers for good. As Elasti-Girl, she joins Caulder's team, the Doom Patrol. Rita falls in love with, and marries, Steve Dayton, the hero Mento. Later on, the couple adopts young Gar Logan, who would become the Teen Titans' Beast Boy.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: In the "JLA: Year One" storyline, the Martian Manhunter tells Rita that he was something of a fan of her "chiller pictures" and that he was disappointed that she did not continue making films. Flattered, she kisses him on the cheek and later tells him that she has met "Alien" actress Sigourney Weaver and that she is sure he would approve of her.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Tragedy strikes when the Doom Patrol's enemies, the Brotherhood of Evil, threaten a small New England fishing village. The Patrol members elect to sacrifice themselves to save the innocents and are killed in an explosion. It is later revealed that several members of the team actually cheated death (to appear in Doom Patrol revivals), although Elasti-Girl would remain "dead" until "Infinite Crisis".


title: Elasti-Girl

text: When writer-artist John Byrne revived the Doom Patrol in 2004, Elasti-Girl was among the team members reintroduced, as if none of the events in prior Doom Patrol continuity had ever happened.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: This situation was explained as an after-effect of Superboy-Prime's pounding on the barrier to reality, which created ripples that changed reality for several characters, including the original Doom Patrol.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: The Patrol members retain no memories of their previous lives—until Superboy-Prime breaks the Phantom Zone barrier during his battle with the Teen Titans and their allies. At that moment their minds discern visions of the previous Doom Patrols, and Rita remembers everything—her husband, her son, and her own death.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Rita is seen in issue #7 of the 2005 storyline "Infinite Crisis" as one of the many heroes defending the city of Metropolis from the army calling themselves the Secret Society of Super Villains. She personally battles the giant villain Giganta.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Rita makes a cameo in issue #50 of the 2006-07 series "52". She is seen on a monitoring screen fighting Black Adam next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Following the "One Year Later" storyline, the Doom Patrol changes considerably, losing several members and gaining Beast Boy, Bumblebee and Vox.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: The explanation for Rita's resurrection is that Chief salvaged a piece of Elasti-Girl's skull and used his technology to regrow her entire body due to its malleable form. Consequently, Elasti-Girl is very docile and is reluctant to question the Chief. The Chief hints that her malleable form hampers her thinking abilities, leading to her lack of personal initiative which makes her dependent upon Caulder (a.k.a. The Chief). As he observes her interaction with the Chief, Robin suspects that the Chief has brainwashed Rita and the other Patrol members. Rita's husband, Mento, is under the control of his Mento-helmet and believes that his wife would never love him without it.


title: Elasti-Girl

text: Following their battle against the Brotherhood, the Titans and the Doom Patrol witness the Chief working to convince Kid Devil that he is a freak and that the Titans actually dislike him. This pushes the teams to confront the Chief: Mento finally removes his helmet and pointedly tells the Chief that he is no longer the leader of the Patrol and if he ever again insults his wife and son, he will use his powers to destroy the Chief's intellect. Rita firmly stands behind her husband, breaking out of the Chief's control.