( 3:16 PM )
The Joys of Commuting
Ah, the joys of mass transit commuting. Is there nothing more glorious than an hour and a half train ride home after a grueling day in the spice mines? See, most days I’m one of the lucky ones. My walk from my midtown office to Grand Central Station is short enough to allow me the luxury of getting aboard a highly-coveted express train earlier enough to grab a seat. I usually try to grab a window seat of three-seater, or a corner seat in one of the five-seaters (which allows me to stretch my legs a bit). Most of the time people are reluctant to sit in the middle seat (of the three-seaters) or directly across from someone (in the five-seaters). And even if it’s crowded and people need to squeeze in – at least I’m sitting for the whole ride.
The worst case scenario for me is the occasional overweight businessman who enjoys a challenge (or is in denial about his physical attributes) and attempts to squeeze 8 pounds of sausage into a 6 pound wrapper. Adding insult to injury, these are also the types of people who like to read the paper, work on their laptop and (in the morning) drink their coffee all at the same time.
Yesterday was one such day. As I sat in the corner of my five-seater, I watched in horror as the train filled up faster than normal. Someone mentioned that the train was two cars shorter than normal, which was a really bad thing. Before I had time to bail out (which I’ve done on occasion, preferring to get home later in exchange for a comfortable ride), I found myself crushed up against the window as my five-seat filled up to capacity and the aisles became jammed with standing commuters.
Soon the doors closed and we were on our way. To make matters worse, the weather outside was a mild 60 degrees, but the train was still cranking out the heat like it was mid-winter. Before long the train resembled a steamy nightclub filled with heavily jacketed, cranky commuters.
Metro North, along with the rest of New York’s MTA systems, has recently undergone a tremendous fair increase in recent months, prompting public outcries for better services. The best Metro North has been able to do, is to buy a handful of used train cars from the Virginia Railway Express (VRE). These cars have been in service for nearly a year now, but Metro North can’t even seem to find the money to paint over the VRE logos.
As our overcrowded and overheated train passed 125th Street on it’s way to Stamford, Connecticut, the lights started to flicker and the train started to slow down, eventually coming to a complete halt and complete electrical shutdown. Thankfully, that included the heat.
Now, we’d only been riding for about 20 minutes, but this crowd was starting to get ugly. I was praying a conductor wouldn’t be bold enough to walk through to collect tickets, as he probably wouldn’t have made it out alive.
As I stared out the window, I saw what looked like the train’s engineer walking along the side of the train. Not a good sign. After 15 minutes of silence and non-movement, the crowd really started to grumble. I think the only thing that was keeping them patient was the fact that with power off, the car started to cool down a bit.
Then, just as I thought I might lose it, the conductor came on over the PA system and said, “Sorry for the delay folks. It looks like we tore down one of the power cables and it has shorted out the power to this train. We’re on a diesel engine, so we’ll be able to continue on, but we won’t have any lights for the rest of the trip. Also, our apologies for the crowded conditions – we’re two cars short today.” After a short pause, during which people could only shake their heads and grumble, he added, “But the good news is, I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance!”
It did the trick, as the entire train burst into laughter. Kudos to him for turning a tense situation into something to laugh about.
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