So I’m on the 5:01 to New Haven, and everything seems pretty normal…. 

All of the sudden I feel a rush of cool air like I’ve never felt on the train before.  I spin around to check out the door between cars, and it’s closed.  So is the drop-down conductor window. 

Then I notice a lady holding a big piece of plexiglass.

Apparently, the emergency exit window fell in on her spontaneously (uh…yeah… sure).

Anyhoo, nothing major.  It sounds like we’re going to make an unscheduled stop in Stamford to have someone look at the window and to get medical attention for the man and woman that the window fell in on. 

I have to say, the train crew was very responsive and professional about the whole thing.

-CTRider

A building tumbles to the ground on 124th Street. The evening commute comes grinding to a halt for Metro-Northers.

All I can say is, it was a great day to be working from home. (Call it luck of the Irish!)

Let us know your horror stories from yesterday. Were you jammed cheek-by-jowl on the 6:33 to Chappaqua with a few thousand of your favorite Westchesterites? Were you crawling up I-95 on your company’s nickel?

Or were you smart and riding out the maelstrom from a comfy barstool in Annie Moore’s?

The Metro-North Website has not one word about yesterday’s debacle on it–uh, wouldn’t people be more interested in whether trains are still delayed than March 15’s “Bunny Express Excursion”?–so we’ll assume service is back to normal.

The Trainjotting switchboard has been flooded with calls today from people asking about tomorrow’s soiree. (OK, we don’t really have a switchboard, and if we did, we’re sure it would hardly be flooded.)

Here are some FAQs about the party:

Q: Where is it?

A: Pershing Square on 42nd

Q: What time?

A: 7 p.m.

Q: What’s the occasion?

A: Trainjotting’s 1-year anniversary!

Q: Who’s invited?

A: Anyone who wants to go.

Q: Is it open bar?

A: Yes. The dozens of venture capital firms that will be on hand to kick Trainjotting’s tires, as it were, are footing the bill for drinks.

Q: Are you serious?

A: No. In reality, it’ll be a handful of us–Straphanger Joe, PeterFromPort, Conductor Bobby, G. Francis, CT Rider, the guy from StationStops and of course TJ–huddled at the bar, paying too much for drinks, and sharing tales from the rails.

We’ll set up a miniature F train on the bar so you’ll know who we are. Tell TJ you enjoy Trainjotting, and smart money says he’ll buy you a beer.

The much-feared gap between train and platform claimed another victim early this morning, as a woman tumbled under the platform in Rye (more like Whiskey & Rye) around 2 a.m. New Rochelle Man Mugged… I mean the Journal News…has the story.  

Lucky for the lady, who presumably is very, very thin, the conductor saw her fall and evacuated the entire train. The woman said she didn’t want medical attention (”I’m f-f-f-fine,” I believe she stammered. “Leemeee alone, I jus wannasleep.”), but she was taken to Westchester Medical Center for observation.

The poor riders–the true victims in this exchange–waited 35 minutes for the next train.

Why do I get the feeling CT Rider was one of ’em? 

Yesterday’s Mileposts sparked some interesting dinner conversation at my house last night.  Who wouldn’t be inspired to discuss iron pectate?  

Anyhow, Metro-North’s reminder of the ‘difficult’ fall season made my wife and I realize that every season is difficult for Metro-North — nowhere more so than on the beleaguered New Haven Line. 

Here’s a breakdown of the seasons, and the serious issues that will most likely affect my commute: 

Fall: Leaves, iron pectate, flat wheels, rail scrubbers, emergency braking.  Sounds like they’ve got their hands full.  

Winter: Snow, ice on the overhead, frozen switches 

Spring: Flooding, Flooding, Flooding…. 

Summer: Heat causing the overhead to sag.  End result?  Pantograph rips down the sagging catenary, disabling multiple tracks with fallen wires. 

Good times, right?

October is nearly here, and the hottest part of the year is now behind us, thank God. Unfortunately, I ride the dilapidated New Haven line with its 20+ year old cars that have been in the process of being replaced since I was in high school. The current rumor is that the new cars will be coming in somewhere around 2009.  Rest assured, I will NOT be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.  My 2-year-old son will probably be retired by the time the new trains arrive.  The past couple of days have been in the 80’s and I’ve been unlucky enough to sit in cars without air conditioning two days in a row on my way home. For those of you who ride on a semi-functional MNRR line (read: any line OTHER than New Haven), you may not realize how disgusting and uncomfortable this can be. Take my word for it – it is not pleasant.  While I could rant for hours about the despicable condition of the trains that I ride ~225 days a year, my focus today will be the famed terminal – Grand Central – that marks the beginning and end of each of my work days.  Beautiful architecture, convenient transfers to subway lines, food & drink options galore (where else in NYC can you get a bottle of Heineken for $2.25?)…. Grand Central’s got it all, right?  

I have a request for the ultimate improvement to GCT, if I may be so bold:  ventilation on the hellish train platforms. Diesel fumes, and air so thick that you can cut it with a knife.  I’ve lost about 20 lbs in the past 4 months, and I’m convinced that 90% of that comes from sweating it out walking on the train platforms in Grand Central. 

If you spend more than 30 seconds on the platform, dehydration (and a possible asthma attack from the diesel fumes) is pretty much a given.  There are fans affixed to the ceiling every few hundred feet, but they are absolutely useless.  I’m not sure who to contact – the EPA, OSHA, Department of Health – but Satan himself would surely be uncomfortable in these conditions. 

I truly feel for the poor souls whose job it is to work on the platforms – they deserve hazard pay. MTA:  Do something.  Please.  I’d rather stab myself in the eyeball with a rusty coat hanger than stand on a platform in GCT for any period of time. 

[Continuation of CTRider’s Miserable Commute] 

So I thought we’d just be a little bit delayed. They got the train off and running with 6 cars.

Then we stopped. And sat.

After 5 minutes, the announcement proclaimed that there is a disabled train in front of us, so we’d have to back up and get on another track.

We wait another 5 minutes, then start backing up…. then we stopped again. Apparently the disabled train ahead was moved, so they said we wouldn’t have to change tracks.

 Just kidding. Two minutes later, they confirmed that there is still a disabled train on the track and we started backing up again.  

6:30 comes, and we’re moving east. Passing thru Greenwich, the conductor mentions that we’ve just passed TWO more disabled trains. But who cares, I’m headed home.

Nah. Now we’re stopped because the Cos Cob drawbridge is up.  

Boy, my commute REALLY sucks. Time to start looking for a job closer to home. I’m pretty much fed up paying Metro-North $308 each month so that they can limp us back and forth to NYC on 30-year-old trains that are constantly breaking.  

–CTRider 

CTRider did not enjoy his ride home last night.

Fun & Games on the 5:01…. 

Last week (or was it the week before?) we were still inside GCT, and there were a series of LOUD noises (I hesitate to use the word explosion) before one of the cars started filling up with smoke. They moved everyone out of the car, and finally got it moving 15 minutes later, saying that nothing was wrong.  

Sure…I believe that one. Smoke pouring into a train car doesn’t exactly sound like normal operation.  

So today, the fun continues. Something goes haywire, and the train came to an abrupt stop a few minutes short of New Rochelle. The garbled PA declared something about brake problems, and that we would be moving shortly.

A few minutes later, the story changed a bit and we were told that we’d be dropped off at New Rochelle so that we could all get onto another train.  Great. 

We pulled into New Rochelle, but we weren’t on a track next to the platform…. so we are just sitting here.  The next development is that they are moving everyone from the front three cars into the rear six, so they can remove the head three and have the rest of the train continue on. 

To add insult to injury, there is an obvious non-commuter in a four-seater nearby with her iPod at full volume–I can hear the distorted bass from the $0.05 earbuds from here, so it can’t sound too great in her ears.

One person got her attention and asked her to please turn it down, and the non-commuter’s screaming response: “?*$# you! You don’t know me! Don’t be telling me what to do.”  Now her cellphone is ringing and beeping–it sounds like something from Star Trek, but of course she can’t her it.  

God, I love my commute. Some people don’t know how to share common space, and even if they do the trains are so unreliable that it’s a coin toss if you are even getting home on a given evening. Hey, it’s 6:02 (I usually get to Fairfield @ 6:05) and we just started moving again.

Any bets on what time I’ll actually get home?   

–CTRider  

[Tune in later for the rest of CTRider’s trip.]

Dear Sir Snores-a-lot, 

You’re a Caucasian male, probably in your mid to late 30’s and have some kind of half-spiked blonde hair. You board the train at Fairfield. You’re usually on the 7:08 or the 7:24 and sit towards the rear of the train.

For the past two days, I’ve had the VERY unpleasant experience of sitting in the same car as you. Why, you ask? Because you snort and snore very loudly as you drool onto your tie. On Tuesday, you were passed out leaning against a window and had everyone in the car irritated.

I was hoping that this would be a one-time thing, but I was wrong. Yesterday morning, you snagged a seat in one of the five-seaters, once again snorting, snoring and drooling.  Since the 7:24 was packed, you irritated even more people than on the previous day. 

I’m not sure if you’ve got a new baby at home that is keeping you up all night or if you’re out partying until 3 am every morning, but you make an already unpleasant experience even worse. Whatever the problem is, maybe you should try sleeping at night.  Not like anyone cares if you sleep on the train (although the guy next to you on Tuesday looked pretty pissed that your head kept bobbing and landing on his shoulder), but we could definitely do without the snorting and snoring. (Since the drooling is only a visual thing, I guess we can deal with that — although I’d prefer not to see that either.) 

Thank God I saw you walking onto the platform this morning so I had an opportunity to head in the opposite direction. It was actually a pretty nice ride in silence after listening to you for the past two days. 

Has anyone been appointed the enforcer of Commandment #7 on the New Haven line?? If not, I suppose I’ll volunteer. Where can I buy a family-sized pack of Breathe-Rite strips?  Not only will I properly affix one to the bridge of your nose, Sir Snores-a-lot, I plan on using them like butterfly bandages to close your mouth, as that seems to be the primary source of the offensive sounds.  

–CTRider