ConnecticEnergy tells us about an interesting flare-up on the train from Stamford this morning. A woman with no ticket–and, apparently, no money–was getting grilled fairly hard by the conductor.  She was giving it back to the conductor with some vehemence as well, enough to yank some commuters out of their sleep, newspaper, Blackberry, etc.

After a few minutes of pyrotechnics, a man–nattily dressed, black–from a few rows back spoke up, said he’d cover the woman’s fare, and extended a 20 to the conductor.

You’d think it would end there, but it didn’t. The conductor continued to dress down the woman (she was black as well) even after taking the man’s money and issuing a ticket. The well-dressed man spoke up, something to the effect of, she’s got a ticket, leave her alone.

The conductor made it clear to the well-dressed man, the woman who had no ticket, and everyone else on board, for that matter, that the woman really, truly needed to understand that she was not to ride trains without tickets.

ConnecticEnergy seemed to think he was a bit hard on her.