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? 

I spotted a few thigh-high tykes on the train this morning, and remembered it was Bring Your Kid To Work Day (formerly Bring Your Daughter To Work Day).

That got me thinking: If yesterday’s Great New Haven Line Debacle had happened a day later, or Bring Your Kid To Work Day had happened a day earlier, what sort of mess that would’ve created.

For starters, the already jammed platforms would’ve had dozens more bodies, however small. Already irritated parents would’ve been extra-protective of little ones being crushed between irate passengers or getting shoved a little too close to platform edges for comfort.

Parents would’ve had to explain why trains were flying by without stopping. And once a train did stop, imagine the sight of parents and their offspring clamoring for a few square inches on a jammed train, some poor kid cheek to cheek with some guy’s arse all the way from Rye to Grand Central.

Perhaps it would’ve soured parents on the whole Bring Your Kid… concept for years to come, not to mention the kids themselves–yes, a whole generation of moppets might’ve decided that that commuting thing Dad or Mom does just isn’t for them.

Speaking of parental units, our own father, himself a former commuter with decades’ worth of war stories, is in town. We’ll tap him for a few of those stories, to be shared tomorrow.

Rough week for our New Haven line brethren. First, a train jumps the tracks in Grand Central, leaving several hundred commuters stuck on the train in the bowels of Grand Central. Then several trains bypassed Mamaroneck and Larchmont this morning after a car hit a train in Rye, leaving commuters waiting…and waiting…and waiting… in the 15 degree weather.