The Diary of A Simple Man

I don't usually cross-post from Charlie on the Commuter Rail, but this may be of interest.

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It's been a long time since I ran across a rude conductor; I guess I was due. Here's the complaint that I just filed with the MBCR:

Conductor 1719 was extremely rude to me this evening. I'd forgotten to switch to my October pass, and so she charged me for the trip, plus the onboard purchase penalty fee. I recognize that she was within her rights to do so, although she certainly knew that I was a regular T pass subscriber; I have been riding in her coaches since long before she began working on #715.

What was NOT appropriate, however, was the delight which she displayed in charging me. She smirked and spoke in a very condescending manner. I don't know why she apparently felt that my forgetfulness was her personal victory; I haven't had any personal interaction with her before.

In any case, I found her conduct completely offensive and rude. That sort of arrogant and insulting behavior does nothing to enhance the reputation or image of the MBTA and MBCR.

It was the equivalent of a victory dance - just a nasty, sneering smirk. Apparently charging me $8.75 was the high point of her day.

On my Friday commuter home there were 28 standees in my coach. There were no empty seats.

It's obvious that the T management isn't going to do anything about it. Nor is the political management. So it occurred to me that there are probably some federal laws about overcrowding and train capacity. I mean 28 people standing in a 122-person capacity coach has GOT to be a safety hazard, right?

Perhaps I should be looking into blowing the whistle to the Federal Department of Transportation. Or maybe some sort of class-action suit would be more appropriate. In any case, it's clearly necessary to move forward, because the entire MBTA bureaucracy and the state government are simply ignoring the situation. And I feel simply ridiculous logging failure after failure on my commuter rail blog with no meaningful results. I mean, I'm not writing about the problems because I like to whine; I want something to be DONE about them!

Does anyone know where I should go to get information on either the appropriate federal officials to contact, or on an organization that might like to take on the MBTA? The only one I can think of is MassPIRG - the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group - and I'm not sure they're the right ones.

BostonNOW! ran the article today about my Charlie blog. I'm relieved that the photo came out okay!

In HOT pursuit

This morning I saw fourteen ducks swimming in single file on a long pond in the middle of Boston. All of them had snow on their backs.

Earlier, I also saw something I'd never seen before: a new train. Either that, or it had been completely refurbished: the lights were blindingly bright, and all the seats and hand-holds were brand new. It had that "new train" smell.

This is not going to be a long entry, because who wants to hear me talk about the weather? Nobody.

Okay, I can't resist saying it - no, I'm going to resist. Self-depreciation can be funny (I hope), but I know I carry it way too far.

Anyway, the weathermen last night (Thursday) were warning of a high-energy winter storm on the way. It was going to hit around 6 AM, and dump a lot of snow on our region over the next eight hours or so.

Teri and I talked about it, talked about the possibility of me not going in to work on Friday. I suggested we wait and see; maybe my company would call a snow day.

No such luck. As we started out from the house, the snow was just starting to come down, thick and fast. Teri was worried, and so was I. She suggested to Sebastian that she might not take him to school, and he immediately burst out sobbing - big fat tears practically burst out of his eyes.

"I want to see my friends!" he sobbed.

Time was tight, but we made it to the train. The ride in was uneventful. When I got out at Ruggles, though, the company shuttle wasn't there. A bunch of fellow employees were standing around, freezing and getting caked in a remarkably thick layer of snow - I'm not kidding, it was half an inch thick at least. After a couple of minutes the shuttle pulled in and we clambered aboard.

The roads were getting bad, so the trip took a slightly longer than usual. When we pulled up to the building, though, the van door wouldn't open. The driver tried and tried, but it was absolutely stuck. It couldn't have been frozen shut; it wasn't that cold. But even though he tried the emergency handle over and over, and another driver came over and helped him pull on the door, it wouldn't budge at all.

So eventually they had us all go out through the driver's-side door. That required sitting behind the wheel, a tight fit while fully laden with bags (as most of us were), but eventually we all got out and headed into work.

I hoped that would be the most exciting part of the day. It wasn't.

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I'll go to sleep soon. But I am trying to decide what I want to write next. Don't know if I'll figure it out tonight, but it's definitely high on my list of priorities. Because there's no question in my mind that I'm happier when I have a story going. It gives me something to think about, something challenging.

Recently the thought occurred to me that if I assume that some (or all) of my stories have no chance for publication, that frees me to write things that I'd really enjoy, but wouldn't normally consider doing - for example, a new story using Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson's Hokas. The idea hit me that it might be interesting to do a story about a serious Hoka - one with no real imagination, or no more imagination than a normal human. Might be amusing, though I'd need to work out an angle.

We'll see.

I was in the shuttle bus this morning, heading in to work. We were stopped at a red light. Suddenly...

THUMP! S C R A P E....

I looked down, and saw that a small convertible BMW had gone around us, but the driver had misjudged. The BMW had hit us and scraped badly against our van's left rear corner. The entire length of the right side of the BMW was damaged. A piece was hanging off of it; it looked like a gas cap, but it was on the front right-hand side. I don't know what it was.

"Nice car," I said. "Well, it was a nice car." People laughed.

The BMW went ahead of us while we tried to see the license plate (New York CXC9398, I believe), but after the next light the driver turned left into a side-street, stopped, and got out. She was a blond girl in her twenties, looking remarkably calm.

We sat around for about ten minutes while information was exchanged and all that, and then we proceeded on to work. I was the only passenger curious enough to go back and look at the damage to the van; one little side-light was gone, and there was a little paint scraped off the bumper. There might also have been a little damage, but to be honest it looked as if the bumper had been hit (not too hard) before, so it was hard to judge.

I can only imagine how much it's going to cost to repair that BMW, though.

Funny, I've now been in accidents (one way or another) with THREE extremely expensive cars. The first day that I went driving after getting my license I was rammed from behind by a red convertible MG; when I was in my early twenties a Rolls Royce skidded on ice, plunged across the street, spun around, and rammed me backwards; and now this. I suppose next it'll be a Lexus, or something.

Believe it or not, this entry isn't about the USA under George W. Bush.

The evening began like any other; I took a shuttle from work to Ruggles to catch the 4:19 train to Franklin. It was raining, and the air was uncomfortably sticky.
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I plan to make a number of phone calls about this. I have the number of someone higher up the the MBCR, and I plan to use it. This was, as the disabled man said, "complete bullshit".

So I wrote a letter to Bob Stoetzel, the person in charge of the commuter rail at the T. But he's ignored the problem routinely over the years, so this time I CCed the letter to Mitt Romney.

Does it take a lot of chutzpah to write to Romney after I recently slammed him in the Globe? Not really. He's a public servant. It's his JOB to take care of this stuff. Just because he's not DOING his job properly doesn't mean that it's not his responsibility.

Governor Romney:

I and many other riders I have spoken with have written numerous letters of complaint to Mr. Stoetzel over the past several years. Still no action has been taken to remedy the uncomfortable and downright dangerous conditions on the 715 Franklin train. Below is a copy of my most recent letter.

Sir:

The Franklin 715 (departing South Station at 4:10 PM) train has become an ongoing topic of outrage among riders on that line. I have spoken to dozens of people who have written in to complain - many of them having written more than once - about the service on that train. So far, all anyone has received in return has been a standard response letter, but no action.

In the years that I have been riding the line, there have never been enough cars on that run. Six single-level cars are provided, and EVERY car has ten or more people who are forced to stand in the aisle, making fare collection difficult and conditions extremely unsafe. At multiple times every year year the train has been so crowded that people are jammed even into the spaces between the cars, which is extremely unsafe.

I regularly have to stand for half an hour or more each day. Fortunately I'm healthy and can manage; I have seen elderly people and pregnant women who've also had to stand for just as long. This is not acceptable.

And yet the Needham train just before the 715 has more than ample seating - often, nearly half the seats are completely empty. The Needham train always has at least three double-level cars on that run, and I have never seen it more than 75% full.

The most recent incident was particularly unpleasant: July 27th was one of the hottest days of the year. The temperature was in the mid-90s. So why did three out of the six cars of train 715 have no air conditioning? Passengers were jammed so tightly into the remaining three cars that entry was impossible. Meanwhile, in the cars without AC, temperatures soared to well over 100 degrees. It's a miracle that no one suffered heat stroke or a heart attack.

What will it take to get this problem addressed?

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Peter Maranci

I'll post any replies I get from either recipient here.

Last night something happened that almost never happens: I got a seat on the train going home. In fact, I not only got a seat, I got a WHOLE two-person seat to myself, and several of the seats around me stayed empty throughout the entire trip. That's never happened before. The few times (less than ten) in the past that I've gotten a seat on the train home, I've had to share it.

This morning there were a lot of spaces open at the Dean College stop on the commuter rail, another unique event. And the train was more than 90% empty. Boston isn't quite a ghost town, but I'd estimate that there are only 50% as many people as usual commuting this week.

I like it this way, to tell you the truth.