cathyr19355 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cathyr19355) wrote2009-11-05 08:59 pm
cathyr19355) wrote2009-11-05 08:59 pm
Entry tags:
Post-Halloween Horror
Well, what do you know? The Phillies didn't win the World Series, after all.
Instead, we got a different kind of horror--a transit strike. (The strike affects all of local transit except the rail lines, but has the effect of making the rails three times as crowded and horribly slow.) Monday, it took me twice as long as usual to get home. Tuesday, our train service was suspended. Not because of the strike, but because of a train car fire down the line. So I drove to work and back--a three-hour commute (as compared to my usual hour-and a half) for the day. Tonight, I waited nearly 45 minutes to get *on* a train, only to be ushered over to one that was nearly empty--while the lines of other passengers were shunted elsewhere.
Yes, it's Commuting Roulette. Pray you never have to experience it. The horror!
Instead, we got a different kind of horror--a transit strike. (The strike affects all of local transit except the rail lines, but has the effect of making the rails three times as crowded and horribly slow.) Monday, it took me twice as long as usual to get home. Tuesday, our train service was suspended. Not because of the strike, but because of a train car fire down the line. So I drove to work and back--a three-hour commute (as compared to my usual hour-and a half) for the day. Tonight, I waited nearly 45 minutes to get *on* a train, only to be ushered over to one that was nearly empty--while the lines of other passengers were shunted elsewhere.
Yes, it's Commuting Roulette. Pray you never have to experience it. The horror!
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The train car fire could have been really serious, but fortunately turned into one of life's near misses. )I wasn't there, but I got the following facts from the media, transit workers, and other third-party sources). The train was full, but the passengers and conductors smelled smoke, and the conductors hustled everyone off the affected car into the other cars just before the nick of time. After the fire started, they evacuated the rest of the train. However, the strikers wouldn't take the stranded commuters the rest of the way into the City by bus (it's the workers who man the buses, trolleys and subways who are striking), so about 500 people had to fend for themselves. Some of them walked the six miles (or so from the affected station) into Philadelphia.