As Trainjotting visitors know, we’re big fans of the monthly Metro-North mouthpiece Mileposts (second best alliteration you’ll see all day). We were a bit surprised to step onto the 8:16 headed for GCT today and see a copy of it, as we’d already seen the March issue, and April wasn’t due for several weeks.

Then I looked closer, and saw that it was actually Outposts–”a publication for MTA Metro-North Reverse-Peak Customers.”

Turns out it’s a quarterly publication that’s been around for like a decade, an MTA spokesperson told me. What was a publication geared towards reverse commuters doing on the Manhattan bound train, one wonders.

What was particularly interesting was that half the issue was en Espanol. To wit:

Los cambios de horario de abril le traen mas servicios expresos cuando usted mas los necesita 9y seguoro que eso es aun mejor que las flores que le traeran las lluvias.

(Sorry, our Spanish is limited to asking for two beers at American-friendly all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.)

I assume the Spanish is for all those investment bankers making the reverse schlep to Stamford.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the commute from city to suburbs, and finds that it’s exhausting, it’s expensive, it can ruin your social life, and it just might help your career. In short, when all of your friends are hitting happy hour and some funky bar around 6, you’re sipping a Bud tallboy on a train next to some angry guy who runs some stupid commuter blog.

Matt DePascale, 24, says he used to socialize with co-workers three to four times a week when he worked in Legg Mason Inc.’s downtown Manhattan office. In recent months, he accepted an offer at the money-management firm’s Stamford, Conn., office and says that by the time he gets home to his Manhattan apartment, he’s often too tired to go out. “Now I have to take the train to Manhattan, go home to drop off my bag, and then go out to meet up with friends. It’s more of a production,” he said.

The one positive, reporter Dana Mattioli notes, is those suburban jobs often mean more face time with the boss and quicker advancement. Matt DePascale, who never thought to actually bring his bag to the bar, is at least making a little more coin these days.

Mr. DePascale was able to go from a back/middle office position to a front-office spot when he moved to his company’s Connecticut office. Now, he is also eligible for financial incentives and bonuses.