I don’t know if it’s all those delays, but the New Haven Line sure leads the league in passenger skirmishes.
ConnecticEnergy saw a beauty last night on the Stamford bound 8:0-something out of Grand Central. The train was full and the conductor made his announcement about making all seats available. Two men were sitting cattycorner in a four-seater. Another man approached, neatly attired in a decent but not ostentatious suit, and indicated his desire to take one of the two remaining seats in the four-top.
Of course, nobody likes That Guy. Ideally, it’s two people in the four-top (OK, in a perfect world, it’s one person in the four-top), because once that third person’s in there, two people have to sit face to face in a tight spot and have to wordlessly decide who gets to be the male and who gets to be the female. (If you’ve sat in a four-top with at least two others, you know exactly what that means.)
Well, the seated man, also in a suit, also around 45, was having none of it. He loudly told the standing man that both seats belonged to him.
The standoff ensues. The standing man will not back down. The other passengers pick up on it and start shouting encouragement to the standing man: Take the seat! Sit! Make him move!
Still, the seated man will not budge his legs.
“Have you ever ridden this train before?” asks the standing man.
The seated man suggests he get the conductor to mediate. The standing man says he’s happy to take it up with the man in blue upon his arrival.
More cries from the Greek chorus: Take the seat! Don’t back down!
“We all pay for a ticket,” the standing man says, then forces himself into the seat.
The car breaks out in applause! The originally seated man hurriedly burrows through his bag for a book that will give him some cover. He and his hated seatmate don’t even bother enmeshing their knees together; they’ll simply rub patellas for the next 40 minutes to Stamford.
But wait, it’s not over. Some 30 seconds after the standing man won the battle and took his hard-earned repose, a small woman jumps on board and makes for the increasingly full four-top. She points to the one remaining seat and meekly says, “Can I sit there?”
The car full of passengers is silent, then bursts out laughing as the train makes for points north.
that’s hilarious. the non-mover should have been kicked off the train. glad the rest of the car stood up for the standing dude.