Finally catching up on rest from a quadruple-overtime hockey game the night before, and the drizzly weather suits me fine. Changing up my usual triathalon of biking to station, sardine can swim in train car, and speed-walk to the office, I walked the 7/10th mile to the station, and thus forgot to bring along my steely travel coffee mug.

I can still feel the guilt-vibes from No Impact Man for footprinting another dreaded coffee cup on my carbon-account, but I’ve been chipping away at my impact here and there. Looking around on the train, lots of folks are switching from paper to re-usable containers.

I stopped at (the not so evil) Starbucks in Jersey before boarding the train, and they filled up my (Fleet Bank) steely travel coffee mug without a shrug, which was nice–and only charged me $1.66 for it…which is nice.

The guy fixing his broken coffee mug at the fixins bar asked, “Did they fill that up for you?” and I said, “Yup!”

I tried not to sound victorious, or cooler-than thou, but he was drinking ice coffee anyway–so I felt tres un-cool, not making the switch to ice-coffee here in May.

From Port Authority:

PATH TRAIN SERVICE SUSPENDED TONIGHT ON 33RD STREET LINES

PATH service between 33rd Street and the Journal Square and Hoboken stations will be suspended in both directions through this evening due to signal and power cable damage caused by a small manhole fire east of Christopher Street Station. There were no injuries.

PATH stations at 33rd Street, 23rd Street, 14th Street, 9th Street and Christopher Street stations will be closed this evening. PATH will operate regular service on its Newark to World Trade Center and Hoboken to World Trade Center lines, and also will operate between Journal Square and Hoboken stations. NJ Transit will cross-honor PATH tickets at Penn Station New York and Penn Station Newark. PATH passengers also can use the New York City subway system to pick up PATH service at the World Trade Center Station. An update on when the system will resume normal operations will be provided as soon as possible.

http://www.paalerts.com/recentalerts.aspx

HOCKEY TRAIN REFRAIN

After last night’s defeat at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one game from elimination, and New Jersey commuters may once again walk at ease through the halls of Penn Station without the crush of of red-white-and blue clad hockey fans, with booming echos of  “LETS GO RANGERS!” and “ICE THEM PENGUINS!”  wandering up and around the concourse.

Don’t get me wrong — I love hockey, and played it as a kid. My older brother even plays in a hockey league and admits to enjoy it, but when PLAYOFF FEVER strikes midtown, my sports-tracking device doesn’t “Catch it!”, and I quickly lose my gritty New York Spirit — in favor of a speedy ride home to Jersey, to avoid the soon-to-be pay-per-view games in peace.

My beef is with the incoming NJ Transit trains. Loaded with loaded pre-gaming Ranger fans (from Jersey, admittedly) – we are often treated to delayed departures, pre-read Star-Ledgers or (worse!) Bergen Records covering the seats, spilled Molson Ice tall-boys littered train cars –  for our Tuesday night commute back to the burbs. 

Last night’s 5:50 made it out from under the ice okay, but if all goes well for Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Garden will clear out, and I can rightfully move onto hating the Yankee fans. {^_^}

-jerseyjim

Every few weeks I vary my morning NJ Transit commute, and ride into Hoboken–either having overslept and missed the early express straight to Penn Station/NYC–or last week, to an 8 a.m. appointment to my longtime dentist on Washington Street.

Since I have a monthly pass to NYC, my occasional commuting option to Hoboken and the PATH seems destined for mere nostalgic diversion–I’m just not ready to fork over my Berzerk budget–on account of the recent March PATH increase to $1.75 each way. After 14 years, I may need to find a new dentist!

With the price of gas and Cheerios bobbing to new levels each week, I initially didn’t pay much heed to the PATH increase, figuring that Hoboken’s youth brigade would shoulder most of the daily burden. To further cloud my fuzzy math budgeting, I’ve been using my Metrocard in the PATH turnstiles (which I applaud–very convenient for the infrequent PATH and subway rider like myself), but this extra $0.25, speedily created an inchoate mess of my subway swiping balance. This makes for mayhem–given the general rule of thumb: if you are on the subway, you are in a hurry!

In the days of yore, before the Midtown Direct (pre-1998), when ALL Jersey rail riders had to funnel through Hoboken and descend to the PATH tunnels, it was a commuter-crowded workhorse with a “burgh”-like oppression. Today, with increased rail fares and a gentrified Hoboken, the platform is still a poorly lit metal/concrete echo cavity–but you just pay more to escape to New York.

–jerseyjim

Doors are opening on moving New Jersey Transit trains with alarming frequency, reports today’s NY Times. The doors have flown open, scaring the shit out of riders standing nearby, at least four times in the last two months–way more than happens on LIRR or Metro-North.

“I typically stand between the cars, and it could be very dangerous because people could be leaning against the door,” said Neil McGrath, who commutes between Princeton and New York. “It’s kind of dodgy. You could easily get thrown out of the door.”

NJT officials say the problem is a mix of mechanical and human error, and not a systemic issue. Others suspect it’s the pressure to meet on-time mandates in the face of increased ridership.

In comparison to NJT’s four incidents the last few months, LIRR has one reported instance of a door opening while the train is moving in the last year, and Metro-North has two.

“I typically stand between the cars, and it could be very dangerous because people could be leaning against the door,” said Neil McGrath, who commutes between Princeton and New York. “It’s kind of dodgy. You could easily get thrown out of the door.”

I must say, I’m a bit perplexed about this notion of “standing between the cars.” Indeed, the article says riders feel compelled to stand between cars “during peak hours when cars are so crowded that it is standing-room-only and conductors cannot make their way through the aisle to collect fares.”

Maybe things are different in New Jersey–perhaps Garden Staters find the refreshing the air in the tunnel outside the car reminds them of home–but I don’t recall ever seeing anyone ride in between cars on Metro-North. In the vestibule next to the entrance/exit doors, yes, but not between actual cars–unless of course they’re peeing, smoking or contemplating ending it all.

New Jersey Transit has launched a campaign geared toward making riders nicer. The campaign, in the form of posters going up on trains , focuses on the things that drive commuters crazy, such as people taking up multiple seats (Sad Sacks, in Trainjotting parlance) and of course the loud cellphone talkers.

The first 750 posters go up this week. Described by New Jersey Transit board member Flora Castillo as “a little edgy with a hint of of humor,” the posters will feature taglines like “How many seats do you need?”, “I can’t take the noise!” and “Clean your room!”

The campaign came to be based on a 30% increase in commuter complaints.

Was that Ethan Hawke on the 7:22 from Roselle Park this morning?

From Hawke’s really not-very-memorable ‘96 novel The Hottest State:

I loved trains. I loved anything that moved. I sat down on the neon-blue plastic seats of the New Jersey Transit train and let it carry me. My eyes burned from the white glare outside the window and from the withered contacts in my eyes. The meadowlands were dusted with ice. I could see the wind crossing the terrain, stirring up the snow into small tumbleweed shapes and then whisking up to the sky in twisted patterns of concentric circles. All I wanted was some rest.

I’d left Samantha’s and gone straight to Penn Station. The place was in chaos. There were hundreds of families waiting for trains, standing around with shopping bags heaped with presents. The floor was one ong puddle of filthy melting snow.

OK, three thoughts regarding Hawke the Author.

1. Were the New Jersey Transit train seats ever really “neon-blue”?

2. Don’t quit your day job.

3. Grow a real beard.

4. Dude, what happened with Uma?

OK, that’s four.

While we certainly do our share of complaining about our commute here at Trainjotting, there’s one big, big plus to Metro-North that we’d like to mention as Labor Day beckons.

It’s a summer Friday, and we’re on, say, the 5:46 from Grand Central. With much of the region clearing out early for the weekend, the train is maybe two-thirds full, and we’ve got our choice of seats–perhaps even the blessed 1-3/4-seater!–on which to enjoy a well-deserved cold one.

Contrast that with the Friday evening commute our Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit brethren must contend with as the Beach People attack. Talk about your Enter Sand Man–fueled on Bud Light tallboys and the promise of Beer Pong marathons segueing sloppily into share-house hookups–the weekend warriors clog the trains. (And often clog the drains as well.) Yes, I’ve been on that Friday train to Long Island–the double-decker packed as Sox-Yanks at Fenway in September, the aisles a scary showcase of compressed humanity, the line for the lone bathroom serving, oh, a thousand riders running 10-deep, the endless cellphone calls about meeting at Ditch Plains or Jet East or whatever the east end hotspot du jour happens to be.

Amateurs abound.

And at least on the LIRR, it’s a good hour or so before the crowd thins around the Fire Island ferry stops. An hour that hasn’t felt as long since church when you were 6.  

It doesn’t necessarily end after the Friday ride either, as the true diehards–chasing that elusive Sunday night hookup, squeezing every last bit of merriment and revelry out of the weekend–drag their hungover, late for work, lamenting poor judgement asses onto the Monday morning train.

But heading to Westchester, where beach culture amounts to watching John Candy in Summer Rental on HBO 12, we can kick our feet up on the seat in front of us and enjoy a beer or a nap.

Amen to that.