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T-Time (Bad Conductor)
About two weeks ago I was riding home on the train when I saw a piece of graffiti that made me giggle. Someone had taken a large permanent marker and written on the end-cap of the luggage rack "CONDUCTOR BILL IS A ----SUCKER". There's a quick journal entry, I thought.
Graffiti isn't all that common on the trains, by the way.
Anyway, last Friday (the 21st) the train was really packed. People were jammed into the aisles (I was one of them - there are rarely any seats free at Ruggles). Almost as soon as I got on, I saw the conductor coming down from the other end of the train. He was huge, not so much fat as tall and wide - a football-player type.
As he approached the knot of people at my end of the car, he started pushing and shoving his way through. One of the passengers, an older man in jeans, objected (fairly politely) to the shoving. "I said 'coming through', sir," said the conductor, his voice dripping sarcasm. "There are plenty of seats on the coach. Or would you like me to find you one?"
Technically there were seats on the coach, but the problem was that the seats on these cars are too damn small. On one side of the coach there are two-person seats; those were all filled with two people each. On the other side were seats that were theoretically for three people, but most of those had only two people sitting in them, taking up as much space as possible. A third person would be a squeeze, unless one or two of the passengers on the seat were unusually small and thin. A lot of people have a natural reluctance to pushing their way in where they're clearly not wanted. And a lot of people are bastards and make a third rider very unwelcome.
The conductor proceeded on to a couple that was sitting right next to where I was standing. A huge number of boxes were piled up on the two-person seat opposite them. "Get those packages off the seat," he barked, "I need those seats."
The man said something that was hard to catch, something about getting off at the next stop. This enraged the big conductor, who pointed angrily at a nearby sign. "See that? It says you have to get those packages off, now." The couple picked up all the packages and basically buried themselves with them. The conductor proceeded onward to the next car, but not before I caught a glimpse of his name tag: William. It was hard for me not to laugh.
Mind you, he was right about the packages. But he had such a lousy attitude that everyone in the car hated him. After he was gone, everyone started talking. Turns out he was a well-known (and loathed) figure to the commuters on the Franklin 4:10 train. There were several stories about awful things he had done. One woman told a story about how a young mother with a baby and carriage had been struggling to get her stuff off the train, while he just watched. When an old lady asked why he wasn't helping, he answered "It's not my problem."
And in fact, he was a really bad conductor. It was said that he almost never came back through the coaches after Ruggles, even though there was another 55 minutes or so to the trip. The rumor was that he spent all his time schmoozing with the "head conductor", whoever that was. So for more than half the trip no one was taking tickets or helping people. I saw that for myself.
I also got to see something rather shocking on that very trip. At a stop soon after Ruggles, two elderly women and a girl in her twenties all headed for the exit. They weren't terribly late, but nonetheless the train started to move just as the first woman got off the train. People gasped in horror. The second elderly woman made it off the train (I couldn't see if she fell or not), but the girl who was following them didn't make it. She had to wait and get off at the next stop. The conductor never showed up.
I was tempted to insert a fictional sequence in which I couldn't hide my smile at the conductor's name, and he pummelled me senseless with his mighty fists and flung me off the moving train, but I thought I'd spare you the excitement.
Here's the report I filed online:
I'll let you know if I get any reply apart from the standard form letter.
And now for something completely different: the Arisia science fiction convention in Boston is going to be having a panel on the subject of LiveJournal! I've put in to be on it, and to be moderator. We'll see what happens.
Graffiti isn't all that common on the trains, by the way.
Anyway, last Friday (the 21st) the train was really packed. People were jammed into the aisles (I was one of them - there are rarely any seats free at Ruggles). Almost as soon as I got on, I saw the conductor coming down from the other end of the train. He was huge, not so much fat as tall and wide - a football-player type.
As he approached the knot of people at my end of the car, he started pushing and shoving his way through. One of the passengers, an older man in jeans, objected (fairly politely) to the shoving. "I said 'coming through', sir," said the conductor, his voice dripping sarcasm. "There are plenty of seats on the coach. Or would you like me to find you one?"
Technically there were seats on the coach, but the problem was that the seats on these cars are too damn small. On one side of the coach there are two-person seats; those were all filled with two people each. On the other side were seats that were theoretically for three people, but most of those had only two people sitting in them, taking up as much space as possible. A third person would be a squeeze, unless one or two of the passengers on the seat were unusually small and thin. A lot of people have a natural reluctance to pushing their way in where they're clearly not wanted. And a lot of people are bastards and make a third rider very unwelcome.
The conductor proceeded on to a couple that was sitting right next to where I was standing. A huge number of boxes were piled up on the two-person seat opposite them. "Get those packages off the seat," he barked, "I need those seats."
The man said something that was hard to catch, something about getting off at the next stop. This enraged the big conductor, who pointed angrily at a nearby sign. "See that? It says you have to get those packages off, now." The couple picked up all the packages and basically buried themselves with them. The conductor proceeded onward to the next car, but not before I caught a glimpse of his name tag: William. It was hard for me not to laugh.
Mind you, he was right about the packages. But he had such a lousy attitude that everyone in the car hated him. After he was gone, everyone started talking. Turns out he was a well-known (and loathed) figure to the commuters on the Franklin 4:10 train. There were several stories about awful things he had done. One woman told a story about how a young mother with a baby and carriage had been struggling to get her stuff off the train, while he just watched. When an old lady asked why he wasn't helping, he answered "It's not my problem."
And in fact, he was a really bad conductor. It was said that he almost never came back through the coaches after Ruggles, even though there was another 55 minutes or so to the trip. The rumor was that he spent all his time schmoozing with the "head conductor", whoever that was. So for more than half the trip no one was taking tickets or helping people. I saw that for myself.
I also got to see something rather shocking on that very trip. At a stop soon after Ruggles, two elderly women and a girl in her twenties all headed for the exit. They weren't terribly late, but nonetheless the train started to move just as the first woman got off the train. People gasped in horror. The second elderly woman made it off the train (I couldn't see if she fell or not), but the girl who was following them didn't make it. She had to wait and get off at the next stop. The conductor never showed up.
I was tempted to insert a fictional sequence in which I couldn't hide my smile at the conductor's name, and he pummelled me senseless with his mighty fists and flung me off the moving train, but I thought I'd spare you the excitement.
Here's the report I filed online:
Name: Peter Maranci
Email: pm36@maranci.net
Address: redacted, sorry.
City: Woonsocket
State: RI
Zipcode: 02895
Phone: (401) redacted again! What am I, the Bush administration?
This is a: Train starting while senior citizens getting off
Incident Date: 11/21/2003
Incident Time: 4:20 PM (approximately)
Route Number: 715
Vehicle Number:
Employee Number:
Location Boarded: Ruggles
Direction Travling: Franklin/Dean
Additional Comments:
The conductor (William) disappeared shortly after the Ruggles stop and was not seen again for the entire trip. At a stop soon after Ruggles (Dedham Corporate, I think) two elderly women and a younger woman went to get off the train. As the first woman got off, the train began to move; other passengers were horrified. The second elderly woman made it off the (by now moving) train, but the third, younger woman was not able to exit. She got off at the next stop instead. No conductor appeared at any time during this incident.
I'll let you know if I get any reply apart from the standard form letter.
And now for something completely different: the Arisia science fiction convention in Boston is going to be having a panel on the subject of LiveJournal! I've put in to be on it, and to be moderator. We'll see what happens.