The Westchester section of the NY Times was downright packed with commuter articles yesterday. The lead story, Ken Belson’s A Turning Point For Transit, was all about what the trip to and from Manhattan will look like in the coming months and years, for drivers, flyers and train people alike.

Then came a story on commuting by bus, as opposed to car, before separate stories on what’s ahead for New Jersey Transit (fixed up stations and more food selections than a filthy Roy Rogers in Trenton), Long Island Railroad (a $500,000 online system for finding your lost umbrella and new armrests that don’t tear your trousers) and Metro-North (revamped stations for several river towns, a 4% boost in price come March, and–as you’ve all been waiting so patiently for–”more trains will be running from Hartsdale to Scarsdale during peak hours,” better linking a pair of stations that are all of 1.6 miles apart.

Metro-North riders can also look forward to cleaner cars, thanks to a “fully-automated cleaning center in the Bronx.” “We’ve had nothing like this before,” says Metro-North ace spokesman Dan Brucker. “The trains will be cleaned more often, and with more cleaning to them.”

Metro-North also announced a new “pantograph monitoring system” to oversee the connection between the shitty old New Haven Line trains and the overhead wires. The story doesn’t mention those old cars being phased out; I thought the New Haven Line was up for the modern pants-ripping M-7s in 2009.

Finally, this gem was unearthed up in the Metro-North story: Metro-North is working on a new signal system for the Danbury Line, as its trains “are currently dispatched by written and oral messages.”

That, and a hearty slap on the back from Sir Topham Hatt.

Entertaining story in the Times today about the Metro-North lost and found, located next to the cop shop in Grand Central. Among the nuggets Ken Belson unearths: around 60% of lost items are reclaimed by their owners, a website helps the losers find their gear, and unclaimed stuff is shipped to Alabama to be resold. (Unclaimed Baggage Center splits the proceeds with Metro-North.)

Among the more interesting items that have turned up at the lost and found over the years : a $100,000 violin, a few sets of false teeth, some prosthetic limbs after a bunch of old soldiers from a veteran’s hospital went on the piss, and folk singer Pete Seeger’s banjo.

Among the things that probably will never be claimed, or resold in Alabama: a George Bush doll that sings “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.”

There was a very smart, very well-reported story in yesterday’s “Westchester” section of the NY Times, in which Ken Belson analyzes the age-old conundrum of, with readership growing on the Metro North, LIRR and whatever the Jersey people take, why does the MTA have such trouble finding the money to meet the needs of its riders?

Some tidbits Belson unearths: Once the Jersey fares go up this year, they’ll be paying an average of 18.3 cents a mile. Sound high? It’s not, as Metro North riders pay 20.3 cents and LIRR pays 20.7 cents.

There was also a money quote, so to speak, from an Anthony Cariglia from Little Silver, New Jersey. As befits a man from a town called Little Silver, Cariglia was wondering how he was going to find the funds to cover a fare hike. “I guess I’m going to have to cancel HBO or start drinking cheaper beer,” he said.

With Sopranos starting in a matter of weeks, I’m guessing Cariglia opts for the Meister Brau.