The high school kids reading the Wall Street Journal on the 8:16 today.

You were both about 18. One of you was a bit rakish–tall, lean, a mop of curly hair that one could envision a recently divorced MILF running her fingers through. The other was a bit more generic: parted hair, the vaguely preppy (chinos, oxford shirt) uniform of a private school kid or an intern.

You each had your own copy of the Wall Street Journal. You discussed stock prices across the aisle, AOL’s takeover of Bebo, even the pro’s and con’s of rainy-day slip-on shoe covers (we called them “rubbers” back before we knew better).

Guys, you’re 18! You should be reading Mad Magazine, or maybe even Maxim. I’m all for 18 year olds who are engaged, maybe even feel compelled to register for the vote, and perhaps even muster the energy to break from the Xbox and get to their local polling place come November.

But geez, you shouldn’t be reading the Journal and discussing stocks and takeovers and shoe prophylactics on the train. Be 18! Slouch in some pizza joint chair, your mouths full as you make fun of people walking in! Talk about girls! Talk about baseball and ultimate fighting and My Chemical Romance! You have the rest of your life to read the Journal.

OK, class dismissed.

Sincerely,

Trainjotting

High-speed trains in Europe are starting to nip into the cheap-fare airlines, writes the Wall Street Journal, by offering amenities such as more legroom, faster speeds (almost 200 mph!), cellphone service and DVD rentals.

A rail system called Eurostar has lopped 20 minutes off the ride from London to Paris, while a Spanish railroad knocked a full two hours off the trip from Barcelona to Madrid.

Couple that with the increased hassle of flying, and the train routes are seeing substantial ridership growth.

 Writes Darren Everson:

As no-frills airlines have become increasingly prevalent in Europe, passengers are being charged for checking bags, checking in at the airport, and even for using credit cards. Rail has gone the reverse route, offering more perks. Eurostar’s trains have power sockets and offer free newspapers and magazines in business and premium economy classes on-board. The TGV Med, a French high-speed train that travels from Paris to destinations near the Mediterranean coast, has DVD-player and movie rentals. SNCF, France’s high-speed rail operator, is launching a youth-aimed overnight service to Biarritz and the French Riviera later this year. The service, called IDnight, will have music, dancing and an all-night bar.

Sort of like the typical 11:06 heading out of Grand Central for Southeast.

A substantial number of telecommuters are being pulled back into the bricks-and-mortar office, the Wall Street Journal reports, as bosses grow weary of just how much work is being done from one’s “home office.”

Sue Shellenbarger’s column deals primarily with full-time telecommuters, not the people like me who get to work a day from home every few weeks (yet still there’s new Trainjotting content every day…how does he do it?). She says corporations such as AT&T, Intel and Hewlett-Packard are calling some home-based workers back to the job.

“…The factors at work — a push to consolidate operations, and the notion that teamwork improves when people work face-to-face — suggest other employers might follow suit as recession clouds loom,” she writes.

Shellenbarger also reports that the federal government, a primary champion of working from home, posted a 7.3% drop in telecommuting among its workers between 2005 and 2006, due in large part by the Interior Department’s callback on its out of the office workers.

Working from home on a federal government job…could life be any sweeter? 

Much has been made of the demise of the newspaper: people get their news from Google and Yahoo, their jobs and used tennis rackets from Craigslist. But Gorgeous Francis of Mamaroneck posits another reason why the paper is going the way of the wine cooler.

While Engine Bob shared what it was like to commute 50 years ago, Francis says commuting on the New Haven line just three years ago was a different experience. The morning ride featured the crackle and twitter of people reading the Times and Wall Street Journal (no, never the Journal News, he says).

But today, the sound is gone. They don’t read the paper anymore. They play with their Blackberrys, reading and sending “important” emails and reaching for record scores in Brickbreaker.

On my beloved (OK, beliked) Harlem line, I see plenty of Blackberrys, but plenty of newspapers too. Even the Journal News.