Life Among The Commutants

Thanks lady...

2010-01-08T17:00:00.001-05:00

This older Asian woman boarded the train and sat down on the chair opposite me.

After a few minutes, she suddenly grabbed her stuff and went into the next car.

I wondered what that was all about until the smell hit me.

Thanks lady.

Sent from my G1...

I'm back!

2009-11-05T16:26:00.000-05:00

This is what cement's the MBTA/MBCR's reputation for attention to detail.

Sent from my G1...

Why posting has been light...

2009-08-26T09:42:00.001-04:00

I'll be back when it gets too cold to ride...

Sent from my G1...

DZWF

2009-06-19T06:59:00.001-04:00

I haven't a clue. Maybe someone fought off a bloodthirsty horde with overwhelming firepower.

Anyway, this is on the Rail Trail in Ayer, MA.

Sent from my G1...

This is a test

2009-06-02T17:30:00.001-04:00

I wonder how this will be parsed.

Sent from my G1...

The Worst One Yet

2009-05-01T16:22:00.001-04:00

I went to the ticket agent window and asked, "How are we supposed to hear the announcements?"

I couldn't even hear her reply.

Sent from my G1...

Not a problem

2009-04-15T06:31:00.001-04:00

An engine came and cleared the way.

Sent from my G1...

Well, this is different

2009-04-15T06:25:00.001-04:00

The commuter rail platform is on the other side of this freight train.

Sent from my G1...

Our tax dollars at work

2009-04-14T23:06:00.006-04:00

This morning's commute was a prime example of government waste and PR cluelessness.

The first indication of the MBTA's new blunder was the MBTA employee insistently shoving a flyer into every passerby at the underground ticket area in North Station. Since he seemed so intent on getting the flyer into people's hands, I stopped and took one from him. It was the orange one in the picture to the right. I quickly digested the contents; a quick re-hash of the MBTA's slogan since 9/11, "If you see something, say something." Since it was nothing new, I thoughtfully deposited my copy in the trash, noting that a great deal of my fellow commutants were far less considerate, as the turnstile area was littered with discarded flyers.

It wasn't until I reached Back Bay that I realized this was more than the usual MBTA make-the-commuter-feel-safe handouts. This was apparently a full-fledged, alert-the-press and press-the-flesh media event for the MBTA, because as I topped the escalator and passed through the turnstile, I nearly tripped over a photographer who was taking pictures of Mayor Menino as he was handing out this flyer as well. Politely declining the proffered flyer, I paused briefly to snap a pic, and headed off to work.

On the way into North Station during my commute home, I realized that I would probably want to write this post about why, in this time of financial uncertainty, the MBTA would spring for 4-color, tri-fold, heavy stock flyers to hand out to simply repeat the "If you see something, say something" slogan that Boston has been inundated with since 9/11, so I stopped by the ticket window to snag a flyer.

I pulled up short, however, when I reached the window. What's this? A red flyer? Weren't the flyers orange this morning? Maybe these red ones are old ones, and the orange ones contain new information, hence they are handing them out to commuters. But a quick look inside both amazed me.

The content of both flyers was, for all practical purposes, identical. The same layout, the same bullet points, the same saccharine sentiments from Dan Grabauskas on the back. Could they really have done this? Months of news articles about how the MBTA is swimming in debt, that they going to have to not only raise fares, but cut back on services to stay in business, and they went and printed up two different 4-color, double-sided, heavy stock, matte-coated flyers? To tell us the same damn simple-minded slogan that they've been hammering into us since 9/11? How many different committee meetings did it take to decide how many and of what ethnicity should be represented by the people in the photographs? How much was spent on a design firm to decide on the right color scheme for the flyers? How much was spent on the on-location photo shoots to get just the right lighting for the "suspicious packages" left in innocent locations at commuter locations? How much was spent on the crafting of the bullet points and the words of care and concern from Grabauskas?

This was an opportunity for the MBTA to score a PR homerun. They could have churned out this same PSA with black and white laser printer output, and put an explantory paragraph on it saying that in order to save money, this message was being done on the cheap instead of with slick, 4-color flyers. What a collossal waste of my money.

I guess I should be glad of one thing. Seeing as Mayor Menino was handing out flyers at Back Bay before business hours, at least they weren't paying an MBTA PR flack overtime to do it.

Incompetence? Or arrogance?

2009-03-25T16:27:00.001-04:00

It is 4:15 and there are 9 trains scheduled to leave in the next 45 minutes. There are 5 trains sitting in the station and not one has been announced.

The next train leaves in 5 minutes and it clearly has to be one of the trains sitting in the station!

Is there some union rule about not having to be on duty until 10 minutes* before scheduled departure?

I have traveled by commuter rail in San Francisco, DC, and Chicago, and their trains were always on the same track each day, ready for boarding at least 30 minutes ahead of time.

Why do we Bostonians/New Englanders put up with it?!

* 10 minutes is both the posted expected time for announcing before departure and the average time beforehand that the conductors reluctantly take their last drag and pitch their cigarettes into the ashtrays that sit just below "No Smoking" signs before meandering off to their assigned trains

Sent from my G1...

Yet another example of stellar service by the MBTA/MBCR

2009-03-04T07:22:00.001-05:00

7:15 on the express just after leaving Ayer.

Is it a holiday? Was the train early? Where are all the people?

They're in the next car because there's no heat in this one.

And I'm paying $250/month for this quality of service and getting hassled by the conductors when I've forgotten my pass at the first of the month.

I wish I could see how this operation would be run if it were privately held.

Sent from my G1...

False Analogies

2009-03-03T09:10:00.002-05:00

Today was my first day commuting in March. However, I had forgotten to put my monthly pass in my wallet. Not the first time I have done this, but this experience was a first.

I showed the conductor last month's pass and told him I had forgotten to put this month's pass in my wallet and that I would have the pass tomorrow. He informed me that there was a spotter on the train and that he (the spotter) would give him (the conductor) a hard time if he (the conductor) didn't charge me.

I replied that I spent $250 per month to ride the train with lousy service and I wasn't paying extra because I forgot my pass one day. I would have the pass tomorrow and would gladly show it to whomever.

He replied that my not having my pass was the same as me showing up at the grocery store without money and expecting them to give me my groceries and then walked away.

When I show him my pass tomorrow, I will attempt to explain to him that his analogy is flawed. My not having my *MONTHLY* pass is more like me forgetting to pay my cable bill on-time and the cable company's first response would be to cancel my service at midnight on
the first of the month.

ZING!

2009-02-27T14:00:00.001-05:00

JM gets on the train at Porter Square and sits with his Scrabble
peeps, but we both exit the train at Ayer and I frequently give him a
ride home as my girls have dance practice directly across the street
from his house. The last few times he has invited me in for
drinks/chat while I wait for the girls' class to end. The following
conversation took place yesterday as JM boarded the train:

JM: "Hey Jack."

JC: "Hey JM. Need a ride?"

JM: "Indeed I do."

JC: "Okay; no problem."

JM: "In fact, you can help me finish cooking 15 pounds of beans."

JC: "What, did you run out of wood to heat the house?"

There was much laughter from everyone.

Brian and Dave

2009-02-26T08:21:00.002-05:00

Last Friday evening was one of my more interesting commutes.

We were about halfway between Porter and South Acton when the door behind me opened up. Slowly a man came through the door to sway next to me.

"WHERE'SH THE BATHROOMS?"

Actually, I didn't know he said this, as the train sounds coming through the door made it impossible for me to hear him clearly, but subsequent discussion among my fellow commuters revealed this to me.

A few people hesitantly offered the advice to continue on to the front of the next car, directly behind the engine. I say hesitantly, because as they looked up from their respective distrations, they quickly came to realize that the man was blasted.

Blotto. Three sheets to the wind. Bombed. Stoned to the bejesus. Wasted. Drunker than a skunk. Higher than a kite.

"Ah fuck", he muttered, and started to topple over on top of me. I started to recoil, almost crawling into Todd's lap (he was seated next to me), but the man caught the handrail and steadied himself.

He then proceeded to stagger up the aisle, frequently swaying and almost falling into the laps of many of the commuters. I kid you not, it took him almost 10 minutes to traverse the length of the car. Since I was facing him and the usual crowd wasn't, I gave them progress updates every few minutes.

Once at the other end, I saw him brace himself for the task of negotiating the vestibule between the cars. He took a deep breath and literally squared his shoulders before staggering through the door.

I continued to give updates, as it took him about the same amount of time to negotiate the next car. When I finally could see him no longer, I announced that he was either face down in front of the bathroom, or he had made it in.

I went back to the conversation with Todd, but it stayed in the back of my mind that the guy was going to add some interesting elements to the disembarking at South Acton if he were in the aisle when we got there, but that stop came and went with no sign of him emerging from the bathroom. We figured that he had passed out in there.

Halfway to Littleton, I looked up and noticed that he had re-entered the car and was about 1/4 of the way back to us. He was holding onto a bench seat and was blinking slowly at the person below him, clearly trying to engage the person in conversation, but being rebuffed. Somewhere along the way, he had produced a cigarette and had placed it behind his ear. He did make the stop in Littleton a little interesting for some, but eventually he sat in an empty bench and let
the people go past him to exit the train. He then stood up and proceed towards us again.

As he got closer, he started to bellow out an unintelligible song. Looks of horror crept over the faces of my fellow commuters. He came to a stop in front of me and struggled to focus on me.

"Whas your name?" he slurred as he extended his fist to me for a fist bump.

"John". I gave him the fist bump.

". . . BRIAN", he barked out after a long pause. "How long?"

What? The question must have been apparent on my face despite not speaking.

"HOW LONG?", he insisted.

"How long to Fitchburg? Where are you..."

"NORTH LEOMINSTER!"

"Oh, about," glancing around at Todd, "twenty minutes?" Todd nodded in the affirmative.

"Oh fuck; I'm going to missh my meeting."

About this time, I notice that the train has quietly come to a stop. So does Brian.

"Where are we?" he asks.

"Somewhere between Littleton and Ayer."

"How long is this going to take?"

"I don't know; I don't work for the MBTA."

He reached up and grabbed the cigarette. "Think I have time to...?" and he gestured at the door with the cigarette.

I just shrugged. He went past me and disappeared into the vestibule. Just then a conductor came into the car from the other end to tell us that the engine was having mechanical difficulties and that we would be stuck here for an indeterminate amount of time. He paused briefly to answer questions from the people immediately around him ("No, I don't know how long we'll be here.") and proceed to go to the next car to continue the announcements.

As the conductor entered the vestibule, it was clear to me that he knew about Brian's condition from his tone and volume.

"NO SMOKING ON THIS TRAIN. If you light that cigarette, I will have you put off this train. Go back into the car and sit down, and NO SMOKING!"

Brian re-appeared from the vestibule and staggered up the aisle, collapsing into a bench, eliciting a look of panic from the man sitting there. But Brian didn't look at him, just sat there cradling the cigarette, maybe even talking to it.

He was quiet until the conductor came back a few minutes later, heading back to the engine. Brian took the cigarette in hand and gestured at the conductor.

"NO SMOKING. You cannot smoke on this train. It is against the law. If you smoke on this train, I will have you put off the train."

Brian gave up, blowing out his lips and slowly blinking his eyes as he returned the cigarette to behind his ear. Just about then, the train started to move. A collective sigh of relief came from all around. I let out a "Yay!".

He was largely quiet for the rest of the way to Ayer. As I got up to exit, I wished Todd luck. "After all, you now have an empty seat next to you; he may decide to come over and chat."

"I'll sit next to Steve if that happens."

Brian didn't even look at me as I passed him.

As I exited the train, I heard Jim telling Harry the conductor (a different conductor) that he may want to call ahead to the North Leominster police and have them pick the guy up before he tries to drive.

I continued on to the rail trail parking lot. As I approached the near end, I saw a boy running toward me along the rail trail.

"DAVE?" he called out. "DAVE?"

As he came into the pool of light from the streetlight at the end, I could see he was about 12-13 years old, and was carrying a boomerang. He stopped as he reached the sidewalk to the parking lot, just as I did as well. He looked right at me.

"DAVE?"

I shook my head at him.

He leapt to his right, into the parking lot, and looked down the length of the parking lot, essentially back the way he came.

"DAD!" he called out and took off after a man from the train who was ahead of me. The boy reached him and tugged on his sleeve. From the man's reaction, he didn't know the boy. The boy shook his head, and continued running up the parking lot, calling out, "DAVE?" as he reached each space between the cars. He rapidly disappeared into the darkness.

I said to myself, "I'm going to have a very large, very dry martini when I get home."

Customer Service

2009-01-09T16:50:00.001-05:00

When my ears were again assaulted by the irritating Pan pipes of a local ethnic group blasting away when I entered North Station, I stopped by the ticket booth to see if there was a managerial type around to whom I could complain. There was and in my conversation with her I learned two interesting things.

The first was that enough people had complained about the PA being too loud that the master volume had just been turned down today. Lovely.

The second was that while the MBCR runs the trains, anything having to do with the station itself is determined by the MBTA, and they don't have a representative on-site to field complaints.

I was given a business card, however. I'll keep all correspondence copied here.

Sent from my G1...

My $250 per month buys me this level of service

2008-12-23T18:26:00.001-05:00

The door on car 222 has been broken for at least a month, unable to close the final 9 inches. Today was special; it was unable to be opened more than nine inches. This will be interesting when we get to Shirley when all passengers have to exit out of one door at the front of train.

Sent from my G1...

In the private sector...

2008-12-11T16:40:00.001-05:00

...these incompetent morons would be out on their asses. 4:24 PM and there are 7 trains leaving in the next 30 minutes. There also happens to be 6 trains in the station. But, up until 1 minute ago, none were announced (I couldn't get out the camera out in time to snap the empty board).

I've used mass transit in DC, Chicago, Montreal and San Francisco and on average, they had their trains available for boarding at *least* 20 minutes before departure. Here, we're lucky if we get to board 10 minutes before departure, and even luckier if we depart on time.

There has to be a way to tie compensation to performance in the public sector.

Sent from my G1...

I was wrong...

2008-12-05T16:48:00.001-05:00

...it can get worse. 4:45 and no sign of the 4:40 express. This the 3rd or 4th night in a row this has happened. I predict the MBCR is going to be the next industry asking Washington for a bailout.

Sent from my G1...

I would have sworn it couldn't get any worse

2008-12-05T16:31:00.000-05:00

Imagine my utter lack of surprise when I entered North Station this afternoon to the sound of a cat being tortured.

Apparently the elders of North Station, in their wisdom, have decided that the low bass voice of the text-to-speech PA system is too easy to understand in the cavernous space that is the waiting area for trains. So, added to the mix is a bunch of ethnic folk song rejects caterwauling their oh-so-politically-correct holiday songs that I don't recognize.

Does anyone at the MBTA or the MBCR have even an ounce of sense? Hell, does an ounce of sense exist in the collective body?

Sent from my G1...

This is sure to go over well

2008-12-04T08:43:00.002-05:00

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1136685

I'm not opposed to the idea in general, but the overall comfort factor of commuting is going to go down as I will now get to listen to even more complaints from my fellow commutants.

Okay, that's just weird

2008-12-03T08:07:00.000-05:00

So I hop on to the Red Line at Porter Square, and there's this guy typing away on his Mac laptop with his hands covered by the thin sheet of packing foam that must have come with the laptop. Sure, I can see one wanting to protect the screen when it's closed, but to leave it over one's hands while typing? Either he's practicing touch-typing or he's paranoid about people seeing what he's typing.

Yup, coming up on Kendall and he's still doing it.

It's not the worst thing I've seen on the Red Line, but it is one of the weirdest.

Sent from my G1...

So why do we have to wait?

2008-11-11T16:26:00.001-05:00

It is 4:23 PM, there are 7 trains sitting on the tracks, and only 2 of the 7 trains that will leave in the next 30 minutes have been announced. This is what I call incompetence. That or ridiculous union rules.

Sent from my G1...

A coincidence? I think not!

2008-10-03T14:44:00.002-04:00

From the Boston Herald article:

In the five months since a horrific Green Line crash killed a trolley operator and injured several passengers, nine MBTA drivers have been slapped with suspensions for texting or talking on cell phones while operating their vehicles, the Herald has learned.
Since May 28, eight bus drivers and one subway operator have received suspensions ranging from three days to 10 days - just short of termination, statistics show.

I've noticed on at least two different commuter rail trains that the conductors/engineers have recently removed the heavy cardboard ads from the ad display frames and duct-taped them over the door windows to keep people from seeing in to where they "drive" the train.

Far be it from me to suggest they might be trying to frustrate prying eyes.

Does this make me a bad person?

2008-10-02T13:55:00.002-04:00

Even though I stopped commuting by train several months ago, I'm still signed up for the T alerts--you know, the system they use to email you 45 minutes after your train was supposed to arrive, to tell you that it will be delayed?

Every time I get one, I thank $deity (whichever one strikes my fancy that particular day) that I'm not the MBTA's bitch anymore.

Killing time...

2008-09-25T07:26:00.003-04:00

Smallware's Solitaire app for the iPhone/iPod touch is a slick little app for passing the time on the commute. Yesterday I beat my previous record time of 2:11 with 1:54 as shown in the screenshot. Also shown in the screenshot is what I consider to be a bug. If you put your iPhone/touch to sleep with the game as the active app, the timer doesn't stop, which is how I ended up with a longest winning time of 6:30:01.

But other than that, it's a fine way to kill time on the train.

And I pay $250 a month for this level of service?

2008-09-24T16:48:00.001-04:00

The 4:40 Fitchburg Express is about 5 minutes out of North Station when the utility closet door starts to drift open due to the swaying of the train. Seeing as I'm sitting right next to it, I reach out and give it a good shove to close it. As it clicks shut, all the power goes out on the train. Nice.

I think I'm dying here

2008-09-12T16:45:00.001-04:00

This 20-something chicka just sat down a few rows up, whipped out some really pungent perfume and started pumping it out the way the military did with Agent Orange back in Vietnam. Holy crap! My eyes are watering and my throat is burning.

Fscking MBTA

2007-09-25T17:16:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here on the 4:50 express from Porter. It's about 87 degrees outside, and probably in the mid-90's on the train. Not only is the AC not on, the heat seems to be on. It's as if someone in central control decided that no matter what the actual temperature was, it's fall, goddammit, and we're going to turn on the heat.

I ended up on the 7:07 this morning, which was fifteen minutes late, as usual. Time to sharpen the poison pen and throw another letter at the MBTA customer service team. That makes six or seven already in the past three months; I wonder if these guys are starting to curse my name yet.

Time to sell short?

2007-08-28T12:00:00.001-04:00

I'm still looking for secondary corroboration of this story, but apparently a group of corporations purchased short-sale options worth $4.5 billion that all expire on September 21st, 2007.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b96_1188081846&p=1

Yeah, it's a tinfoil-hat site. Looking for a more reliable source as we speak.

EDIT: Less tinfoil-ly link: http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2448565379

PICKLES!

2007-08-10T08:46:00.000-04:00

Okay, this is going to sound like a seriously weird thing to get excited about, but it's been that kind of morning.

In my every-so-humble opinion, the best pickles in the world are Cain's Zingers Baby Dills. They're baby dill pickles with whole cayenne peppers and gloves of garlic. Spicy, crunchy, bite-sized perfection, if you like both hot food and pickles.

I noticed one day that they're not on my grocery store shelves anymore. I started trying to track them down, and found that Cain's pickle line had been sold to Gedney Foods so that they could focus on the mayonnaise business. Gedney still sells the product, but not in New England; they only carry them in the Midwest. However, Gedney's customer service team was kind enough to point me here:

http://www.mybrandsinc.com/ShopOnline/catalog.asp?t=0&s=0&ss=0&p=3314&m=a1&q=12&c=841918

I have a case on the way. :-)

US GDP

2007-08-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

Looks like the US GDP is at about 13.2 trillion for 2006. A 15% tax rate on consumer spending would deliver $1.9 trillion, which would have to be split between federal, state, and local government. Current federal budget is around $4.5 trillion; total of all state budgets in the nation is $1.3 trillion; muncipal budgets are probably in the $1-$2 trillion range, but I haven't found a source set.

Talk About Rude

2007-05-22T14:45:00.001-04:00

I understand that people are in a rush. So am I. But there is no reason to be rude; so when I saw a guy come running in to the t-station, I paused and let him go down the escalator first thinking I was really not in *that* big a hurry.

So I get down to the ticket machines, and, having a monthly pass, I put it into the machine. The same guy I had let go by in his whirlwind down the escalator jumps past me and crashes though the gates. Great. The MBTA now has a 20 minute waiting period before I can use my UNLIMITED MONTHLY PASS!!

So I crash the gate too, and hold my pass up for the T-worker person to see who yells something at me as I head down the stairs to the platform ... because he made *such* a big deal about the guy who crashed the gate on my dime ....

Film at 11!

2007-05-03T09:12:00.000-04:00

Seeing as how I get to ride the Fitchburg line with my compatriot here, I sometimes get to experience these Commutants as well...

We were headed down the escalator at Porter to the Red line from the commuter rail where we saw a lady (also riding the escalator) watching a portable DVD player, completely oblivious to the rest of the world.

There were a few comments exchanged between Jack and I as to whether we should stand behind her and watch or not, but we chose to pass her and continue to our trains as we could hear the trains approaching.

I went to my platform and the lady soon followed, still intently watching her movie. Having boarded my train and taken a seat myself, the woman boards behind me, turns around and faces the door ... but not everyone is on yet. The rest of the people from the platform simply brush by her, pushing past and causing her to sway slightly. She ignores all of them and continues to watch her movie.

The trains that the MBTA uses, being the most modern, elegant and smooth pieces of machinery known to man, starts down the line with a rough lurch. The woman has both hands on the player and is not holding on to anything else ... the initial jounce of the train causes her to smack into the pole that you would normally hold onto.

This causes her to look up! You would have thought someone had hit her. She looks wildly around like someone had done this to her, having completely ignored all of the people who pushed pasted her earlier, and goes back to watching her movie.

We arrive at my stop, and the doors open. She is still standing in the doorway, even though the car is almost empty and plenty of seats are available. The remainder of the people in the car are now trying to get off; the first few push past her again ... she is still ignoring them .. but there is one guy who apparently has had enough of her indifference to the other passengers.

This guy walks up and line-backer style puts his shoulder into her back, prostrating her out the door onto the platform. A complete yard-sale of her thing, her pocket book, her DVD player ... topped-off with the disc rolling away.

2006-12-12T22:25:00.000-05:00

Sadly, I didn't have a camera with me when this happened, but I was first inspired to do a blog like this a few years ago, when I encountered my first Commutant.

I live in the Greater Boston area, and I am blessed with the need to use the services of the MBTA to get to and from work. I normally ride the Fitchburg line, but I do find myself on other lines at times in my life. These other sorties have proven to me that commutantus americanus is alive and well in these other ecosystems as well. You will be hearing from me and others about our experiences.

My first Commutant encounter was during my morning commute. We were somewhere in the vicinity of Concord when the Commutant approached me.

Now, I was sitting on a three person bench at the front of a red/blue seat car where there is a little more foot room where they make accomodations for a wheelchair. I was seated in the middle seat with my backpack on my left on the aisle seat, as I was saving the seat for my boss who was getting on in Lincoln. All around me were dozens of open seats. While waiting for the Lincoln stop, I had my headphones on and was grooving to a little Collective Soul.

The Commutant stops in front of my chair and says something while gesturing at my backpack. I hold up my hand in a "wait-a-second" gesture and then remove my headphones.

"Yes?"

"I want to sit there." He points at my backpack.

"If you don't mind, I'm saving this spot..."

"WHAT! You can't save seats on the train. I want to sit there!" He actually stamped his foot in frustration.

"Look, my boss is getting on in Lincoln..."

"I don't care. You can't save seats on the train. I want to sit there and you have to move your bag." He half-heartedly reached out to move my bag, but I put my hand on it and straightened up in my chair and his hand retreated.

"My boss is getting on in two stops and besides, there are plenty of open seats there and there and..."

"I don't want to sit in those seats; I want to sit there."

I had had enough.

"Well you're not going to." I looked him straight in the eye as I said this and refused to look away.

He hesitated for a brief second, and I saw him decide not to push the issue. He "humphed" and sat down in the aisle seat across from me and continued to mumble under his breath. I replaced my headphones and returned to Collective Soul.

Two minutes later I get a text message from my boss, saying he'd gotten a late start, and was driving in instead.

I got nothing but black looks from the Commutant all the way to North Station when no one sat next to me at Lincoln.