Commute

[magid]

This was the worst morning commute in ages. The train was late. So of course it was crowded, but I managed to get on. The air conditioning was off (broken, or off because the weather above ground was cooler? I don't know.), and everyone was jammed in like sardines (sardine jam...), balancing as best we could. And the driver was incompetent. We stopped for the first time in the big curve just outside the station. We stopped at least 20 more times before the next station, sometimes going only a few feet before jerking to a stop, a challenge to everyone's balance each time. We even stopped three times on the platform at Central (one was even the correct place to stop). Net traveler gain, of course, so even more crammed in, more precariously balanced. And again lots of stops before Kendall, as if the train were in stop and go traffic.

I gave up at Charles St., my feet hurting, tired of being crammed into strangers on the train. I checked the clock as I left the station: my usual time for the train part of the commute is under 15 minutes. It had already been 17 minutes to go four stops.

The frustration got me walking faster (better to be sweating from exercise than sardine impersonations, after all), and I did the mile or so down Charles Street and through the Public Garden in a quarter hour. I suspect I got in about the same time I would've had I continued on the Halting Train of Procrastination.

Comments

going to hurt you

[bitty.livejournal.com]

sardine jam?
my appetite for the day is ruined. ruined, i tell you!

Re: going to hurt you

[magid.livejournal.com]

Would salmon jam be better, then?

Re: going to hurt you

[bitty.livejournal.com]

"better" is such a relative term.

Re: going to hurt you

[magid.livejournal.com]

Salmon-mango jam, perhaps with hot peppers?

Re: going to hurt you

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

and cream cheese!

Re: going to hurt you

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin*

The sad part is, I don't much care for cream cheese.

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Ick! I hate that.

I was out in Lowell this morning, and didn't get on the train until almost 10 and things seemed to be running ok by then.

[magid.livejournal.com]

For all I know, it was just one idiot running the one train that I happened to get on, and the rest of the system was fine(ish). Or there were mechanical issues. Or something else entirely, but they didn't bother to tell us, so I'm still sticking with the one idiot theory. (Even if there were slowdowns up ahead, stop, tell people that's why you're stopped, and don't do the stop and go thing.)

Glad you misssed it.

[arfur]

Was it one of the new trains or the old ones?

The new trains are really annoying for conductors to stop outside of the usual station locations: they're designed for automatic operation. They have to do Charles Station on manual while it's under construction, and it feels like it takes a full extra minute for them to stop where they want to without a huge jerk.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice whether it was new or old; that's something I notice more on the Green line, with those odd up-and-down cars inside (that have far too little room up by the guy driving the train, not quite enough for two people to pass, really). I should pay more attention.

[madknits.livejournal.com]

The commuter rail from Rockport went slowly over the Beverly bridge because it is being repaired. Then in Salem teh Tranit Police came through with the dogs, sniffing for bombs. Then on the Red Line, we were jammed in like sardines--Sardine Jam-- ewww, I'm a vegetarian, dammit! I got to work late and was not happy. Oh, for wings to fly.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a miserable commute, all around.

I'm still hoping for the teleporter, though; I suspect Boston fliers would be at least as bad as Boston drivers...
:-)

[necturus.livejournal.com]

I wonder if your delay had anything to do with the bomb scare at South Station (which turned out to be due to a skipping CD player in someone's luggage).

[magid.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear about the bomb scare. Did they evacuate the station?

[arfur]

yeah, but only the commuter rail level, so theoretically the red line was "unaffected." it was eerily quiet outside my desk at the office: there should be at least one set of clang-clang-clang sounds every 10 minutes, but there were not.

[magid.livejournal.com]

How odd, even 'just' evacuating the commuter rail station (as if someone getting on/off the Red line wouldn't be at all affected were a bomb to go off in the train area. Yeah, right.).

It reminds me of Israel; I remember the Jerusalem central bus station being evacuated on a Friday afternoon because someone had abandoned what turned out to be a perfectly innocuous bag. Pretty inconvenient for all the pre-Shabbat travelers...