I took the late train home last night. Actually, it seems everybody on NJ Transit took the late train home last night.

Boarding my usual 5:17 Gladstone train in Penn Station, all seemed normal. But soon after we boarded, the first of many announcements greeted commuters. Things got much worse before they got better.

Actually, things never really got better.
 
Describing my odyssey in Joycean detail would be as painful as reliving last night’s journey home.

So here are the Cliffs Notes:
 
A disabled train in the mouth of the tunnel.
Two disabled trains in the tunnel.
All trains out of Penn Station suspended for up to 60 mins
Join the Long March to the PATH trains, and Hoboken trains
Overcrowding and confusion at Hoboken
Confusion and incorrect announcements at Newark Broad St
Express trains NOT making any extra stops, so passengers forced to crowd unsafely, onto one local train.
Home at 8:05 pm
 

All is quiet at Newark Broad Street. All was not quiet on the train from hell.  

As the ticker-tape of CleverCommute messages indicated, NJT sent customers to Port Authority to catch busses. However, when train service was returned (but still delayed), the busses STOPPED cross-honoring their fare.
 
From my experience, I report that conductors and train crew were very considerate through NJ Transit’s latest screw-up. Communication was the problem. Communication is a problem that another “JerseyJim” will need to address immediately–Executive Director James Weinstein.
 
– jerseyjim

It’s been a week full of surprises on New Jersey Transit, but riders are taking it in stride. As commuters absorb the increased delays and cancellations, and no A.C., summer has certainly left the station.
 
This morning’s train missed the platform by about 20 feet, but our suburban scrum barely blinked, and scrambled over the rocks to jump aboard, like khaki-clad Jack Kerouacs, ready for rave on.
 
Tuesday morning had everyone feeling upbeat, as a double-decker train replaced our usual train. With lots of empty seats, and premium air conditioning, nobody was complaining.
 
It’s been a week full of surprises on New Jersey Transit, but riders are taking it in stride. As commuters absorb the increased delays and cancellations, and NO A.C., summer has certainly left the station.
 
This morning’s train missed the platform by about twenty feet but our suburban scrum barely blinked, and scrambled over the rocks to jump aboard, like khaki-clad Jack Kerouacs, ready for rave on.
 
Tuesday morning had everyone feeling upbeat, as a double-decker train replaced our usual train. With lots of empty seats, and premium air conditioning, nobody was complaining.
 
And considering the Russian spy reports from Montclair, NJ, I now regret that I didn’t “say something” last week, when I “saw something,” as that something was the rider across from me, wearing an eye patch. This formerly-unsuspecting fellow was chatting loudly with his “sister,” as they spoke about “dad” and “the show.” I don’t mean to belittle his medical condition, but I would have opted for blending-in with big, girly papparazzi glasses that “The Situation” dons in “da Clubs” of the Jersey Shore, but an eye patch?
 
As riders gear up for trains crowded with summer sightseers, sudden bypasses to Hoboken, and the blast furnace of Penn Station platforms, we’ll hope for a few forgettable rides on the rails.
 

And considering the Russian spy reports from Montclair, NJ, I now regret that I didn’t “say something” last week, when I “saw something,” as that something was the rider across from me, wearing an eye patch.

This formerly-unsuspecting fellow was chatting loudly with his “sister,” as they spoke about “dad” and “the show.” I don’t mean to belittle his medical condition, but I would have opted for blending in with big, girly papparazzi glasses that “The Situation” dons in “da clubs” of the Jersey Shore. But an eye patch?
 
As riders gear up for trains crowded with summer sightseers, sudden bypasses to Hoboken, and the blast furnace of Penn Station platforms, we’ll hope for a few forgettable rides on the rails.
 
-jerseyjim

[image: NY Daily News]

I’m pleased–and mighty relieved–to report that Robert Klara’s FDR’s Funeral Train, which I finished last night, is very, very good.

I’m relieved because ol’ Engine Bob is a pal (and former Trainjotting columnist!), and it would be really awkward if his book wasn’t any good.   But that’s not the case at all. Klara digs through some formerly classified files and finds troves of intriguing stuff–a KGB  agent on board the train that brought FDR from the place of his death in Georgia up to Hyde Park in New York, a heartbroken Eleanor learning details of her husband’s mistress, the newly minted prez Harry Truman pondering his historical speech, and what exactly to do with the atomic bomb, while on board the train. Most shocking is the sheer clout on board FDR’s train: the entire Supreme Court, FDR’s Cabinet, Truman, other key advisors–all on the same train for multiple days. Such a security risk is absolutely unthinkable today. It’s also particulary interesting when the train wends its way into the New York area. On April 15, 1945, the funeral train hit Penn Station around 4:15 a.m., docking on Track 11. Thousands of people had turned up at that ungodly hour with hopes of seeing FDR’s casket, or at least his train, but the train never was visible to the public in midtown Manhattan, staying deep underground all the while.

The commuter-advocacy group Commuter Nation is at Penn Station today, espousing the virtues of mass transit and even giving out a few iPads.

Says CN:

Commuter Nation campaign is back this year to educate commuters in the greater New York metropolitan area about commuter benefits and is giving away free commuting, parking, and iPads during the Commuter Nation FREE RIDE Sweepstakes!

Commuter Nation describes itself as “an initiative to bring awareness and encourage commuting employees to learn about and participate in commuter benefits through their employer.”

Look for their street teams at Penn today. Grab an iPad, I hear they’re cool.

Old-School Disability

There used to be a break room at Penn Station somewhere between track 15 and track 18, back before it was upgraded to a “modern” station. My grandfather worked as a conductor for the LIRR starting in the 1940’s right through to the 1970’s and retirement.

There’s an old family story that says he put my aunt through college by gambling in that break room with the other LIRR conductors. An ongoing pinochle game (or it might have been poker – the exact details are fuzzy) was his daughter’s ticket to a higher education. My grandfather, it seemed, worked a late shift on the train, went to work at a bank during the day, and gambled on his break. He did things the old fashioned way.

My aunt told me she didn’t believe it for a long time, but then one day my grandfather brought her to the break room and introduced her to the gang.

“So you’re the girl we’re putting through college,” one of the conductors said.

The others all nodded and shook their heads. There could have been a lot of cigar smoke and the stale smell of sweat, or it could just be my imagination.

My grandfather didn’t need a disability scam. He just needed a pinochle deck and some willing marks — I mean, players.

That, some luck, and a second full time job to supplement the first.

–Joe Lunievicz

Slate.com has a a fun story penned by Julia Turner on yet another reason to dislike Penn Station–impossible-to-follow signs.

Penn Station’s signage got 2.5 stars on Yelp.com (”Without a doubt, one of the poorest and most confusing arrangements for signage and passenger movement that I can imagine”), Turner notes, compared to the 4.5 stars Grand Central got.

Of course, comparing Penn Station to Grand Central is comparing Tad’s Steakhouse to Gramercy Tavern Camryn Manheim to Cameron Diaz.

But Turner does some digging into signmaking and “wayfinding”–the school of thought about how best to get people from Point A to Points B, C and D–and discovers what sort of a conflicting mess the Penn Station signs representing Amtrak, LIRR and NJT make in aggregate.

She writes:

The problem at Penn Station is not that designers skipped these steps. It’s that three sets of designers did them three times. Penn Station is owned by Amtrak, which manages its concourse on the western side of the station. But Amtrak leases the rest of the station out to the two other tenants: New Jersey Transit has the southeast corner, and the LIRR the northeast. (The Metropolitan Transit Authority oversees both the LIRR and New York City Transit, which manages the two adjacent subway stations; their sign systems are similar to the LIRR’s.) The fundamental wayfinding problem at Penn Station lies in the fact that each of these entities manages its own signs, usually without consulting the others. As a result, the station essentially has three different systems of signage.

This is a crazy way to manage information at the biggest railway station in the country. The user experiences Penn Station as one place. But the current system assumes that the user experiences the station as three distinct spaces. In truth, though, as we saw in the slide show above, many journeys require travelers to cross from zone to zone.

It’s a fun read. It’s here.

The Philadelphia Phillies opted for a chartered train ride to Gotham to prepare for their World Series showdown with the Yankees at the House That Ruth(less Pursuit of Free Agents) Built.

The Phillies also hopped a train to New York to face the Yankees in the 1950 Series.

Writes the New York Times:

The reason for the train was neither historical novelty nor an exercise in team building in advance of the World Series, which begins Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. It was pure convenience. The distance between Philadelphia and New York is too short for a flight, and a fleet of buses traveling up the New Jersey Turnpike could spend as much time on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel as the entire train ride.

So for the first time in recent memory, the team boarded the Phillie Express from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia about 4:45 p.m., bound for New York’s Penn Station.

(As an aside, today’s NY Times also has a big story about how newspaper readership is way down. My copy of the paper was trimmed badly at the printer, so I couldn’t read the print version of the Phillies-Amtrak story, as the last word in each sentence was cut. I instead read it online.)

[Ballplayers are just like you and me! Pedro Martinez turns up for work at Penn Station.] 

Amtrak officials said it was difficult clearing the sidewalks for the players upon their arrival, as they got there right at the peak of yesterday’s evening commute. The players got a mixed reaction from people schlepping into Penn Station.

When the first members of the team emerged from Penn Station on the corner of 32nd Street and Eighth Avenue, they were greeted by a couple of Phillies fans. Their voices were soon overtaken by more lusty locals chanting, “Let’s go, Yankees.”

Perhaps that explains outfielder Jayson Werth’s terse “no” when asked if he could give his assessment of the short ride.

Nevertheless, Hannah Kirkner, a native Philadelphian and a freshman at the nearby Fashion Institute of Technology, was delighted to see her team on a Manhattan sidewalk.

“I thought it was so cool they came here by train,” she said. “It’s very representative of our city to take the train. It’s so human.”

We’re doubtful the players will opt for the 4 train to Yankee Stadium tomorrow.  

[image: NY Times]

Metro-North is moving ahead on a plan to route both New Haven and Hudson Line trains into Penn Station.

 According to the railroad, ”For each line, one alternative would have provided service in all time periods and included the construction of new stations in New York City in areas not currently served by regional rail service. The second alternative involved providing service only during off-peak and weekend periods with no new stations.”

Metro-North continues:

“While still under consideration for implementation, the off-peak and weekend service alternatives will no longer be included in the federal environmental review.  It was determined that the off-peak and weekend services, without new stations, could be implemented using existing equipment and infrastructure without the need for federal funding.” Metro-North is moving forward on a plan to route the Hudson Line to Penn Station during all time periods via Amtrak’s Empire Connection, with two new stations on Manhattan’s west side in the vicinity of West 125th and the Upper West Side. Also green-lighted is  New Haven LinesService to Penn during all time periods via the Hell Gate Line, with three new stations in the east Bronx in the vicinity of Co-op City, Parkchester and Hunts Point.

Don’t hold your breath — these things take years and years. Metro-North will next prepare an Environmental Assessment, which is expected to be complete in 2011. 

Penn Station, whose 1964 destruction and ensuing rebuild is a vital plot point in Mad Men this season, unveiled a new entrance/exit for New Jersey Transit commuters today, reports LoHud.com.

JerseyJim reports:

Autumn in New York has always been a great season, but it just got a little better for commuters at Penn Station.

At 7th avenue and 31st Street, a new entrance greets commuters climbing in and out of the lobby of NJ Transit — saving most folks from the daily merge onto the central stairwell at 32nd street, where the massive flow of LIRR, subway, Amtrak and dazed tourists all funnelled between street level, and the low clearance lobby under Madison Square Garden.

This well located access to all commuters heading downtown, will break up the bottlenecks at 32nd street, and for at least a day or so, we can avoid the AM New York barkers that block the passage at the top of the stairs on 32nd street.

As the August edition of FYI Commuter Update tells us, the design is meant “to capture the style of imagery of the original Penn Station, including its barrel-vaulted ceiling with exposed, open trusses, exposed structure and mosaics that include images of the original station.”

For now, I just hope the windows don’t leak and the place stays clean. But so far, my commute looks to be cut down by two minutes each way!

[photos from JerseyJim, but not the Mad Men one]

New York actor Chad Lindsey sounds like a cool cat. The guy jumped onto the subway tracks at Penn Station Monday to rescue a guy that had fallen and knocked himself out after a blow to the head.

Not only that, but the guy blended back into the anonymous city landscape after that. No Letterman, no cover of the NY Post, no tooting his own horn. Just an anonymous Joe risking his life to save a fellow human.

Pretty cool.

In fact, it was his friends who responded to a short article in the Times Monday about the incident.

An editor at The Times, Wendell Jamieson, said a crowd entered his car on the downtown C train, and the people were thanking and congratulating one among them, a disheveled fellow filthy with track grime.

The man, having already foregone any chance at glory by boarding the next train to pull into the station, declined to speak to Mr. Jamieson, unfortunately. We’ll never know what was going through this man’s mind during his dangerous time on the tracks.

Of course, Lindsey might flip the script, so to speak, and turn himself into the biggest media whore since Wesley Autrey. Since he’s an actor in a city that’s lousy with them, he probably should.

But for now, Chad Lindsey strikes us as a class act. Currently starring in an Off-Broadway show called Kasper Hauser, Lindsey told the Times the gravity of what he’d done didn’t really sink in until a few minutes later, after he’d boarded the C train that almost killed him and his benefactor, Theodore Larson.

“Then I sort of freaked out, and I was nervous and shaky. These five women opened their purses and gave me Handi-Wipes. I was covered in blood and dirt from the subway tracks.”