The throngs! The foncused and rude people!
Jan. 3rd, 2008 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizenThis morning's NJ Transit alert noted at 7:30 AM that the Port Authority Bus Terminal was closed due to icy conditions. I decided to deboard the bus at Port Imperial, the ferry and light rail station. About 20 minutes later after waiting in the cold for about 6 minutes, I got off the train in Hoboken as my Instant Messaging buddy on a different bus got off his bus at the Port Authority.
Exiting the Light Rail in Hoboken was exciting! And cold! It was about 14 degrees with a breeze. Throngs of people were heading towards me. Of all other times in Hoboken, throngs of people all at once were never on any of the platforms - especially to my train at that hour. It didn't hit me until I was actually more in the station. By the time I heard the announcements, lines of people waiting to purchase tickets for the ferry or people wandering around with no destination evident what was wrong were all over the place in the station: The PATH trains out of Hoboken were suspended - no timeframe was communicated as to when they'd be back up and running. The announcers were communicating other options as were the cops and NJ Transit people around the station.
I thought quickly, "Just go get some coffee and wait this whole thing out." Instead of listening to my inner voice, I physically turned around twice or three times in the middle of the station wondering what to do. I immediately felt like those people already encountered with no evident destination and considered joining the ferry line, which was, for all intents and purposes, almost a mile long. It was also all of a sudden clear to me what all the non-committal people were feeling and why they had no evident destination: "But, what about the PATH? That's where I was heading! That's where I need to go, but, no; that would be fruitless. But where do I go now?"
I chose to get back on the Light Rail to go back one stop and take another train to another station a little further down. The whole morning turned out to be a dibacle - waiting for the train at both Hoboken and 2nd Street (one stop back) took roughly 30 minutes; I could have walked to the next station in that time! Who knew? But who wants to do that under the hope and promise of a slightly warmer train and a seat? Both of which weren't readily accessible.
Apparently, someone in Jersey City fell onto the tracks (witnessed by a co-worker), and the trains in Hoboken were simply inoperable for some reason - the cold perhaps? After my two-hour commute, I discovered that there were problems on other trains in Manhattan, too, because of the cold, and others in my office were equally as late as I was this morning. I bet though, that they didn't have to force themselves into a train against all the rudest people in the world. It was actually amazing how people didn't move and let others on the train, thinking, I suppose, that if they didn't move and allow others at the new stations on the train that they would get to their destinations much more quickly - they were wrong!
All in all it was yet another adventure for The Daily Commuter, but not one that needs repeating any time soon.
Exiting the Light Rail in Hoboken was exciting! And cold! It was about 14 degrees with a breeze. Throngs of people were heading towards me. Of all other times in Hoboken, throngs of people all at once were never on any of the platforms - especially to my train at that hour. It didn't hit me until I was actually more in the station. By the time I heard the announcements, lines of people waiting to purchase tickets for the ferry or people wandering around with no destination evident what was wrong were all over the place in the station: The PATH trains out of Hoboken were suspended - no timeframe was communicated as to when they'd be back up and running. The announcers were communicating other options as were the cops and NJ Transit people around the station.
I thought quickly, "Just go get some coffee and wait this whole thing out." Instead of listening to my inner voice, I physically turned around twice or three times in the middle of the station wondering what to do. I immediately felt like those people already encountered with no evident destination and considered joining the ferry line, which was, for all intents and purposes, almost a mile long. It was also all of a sudden clear to me what all the non-committal people were feeling and why they had no evident destination: "But, what about the PATH? That's where I was heading! That's where I need to go, but, no; that would be fruitless. But where do I go now?"
I chose to get back on the Light Rail to go back one stop and take another train to another station a little further down. The whole morning turned out to be a dibacle - waiting for the train at both Hoboken and 2nd Street (one stop back) took roughly 30 minutes; I could have walked to the next station in that time! Who knew? But who wants to do that under the hope and promise of a slightly warmer train and a seat? Both of which weren't readily accessible.
Apparently, someone in Jersey City fell onto the tracks (witnessed by a co-worker), and the trains in Hoboken were simply inoperable for some reason - the cold perhaps? After my two-hour commute, I discovered that there were problems on other trains in Manhattan, too, because of the cold, and others in my office were equally as late as I was this morning. I bet though, that they didn't have to force themselves into a train against all the rudest people in the world. It was actually amazing how people didn't move and let others on the train, thinking, I suppose, that if they didn't move and allow others at the new stations on the train that they would get to their destinations much more quickly - they were wrong!
All in all it was yet another adventure for The Daily Commuter, but not one that needs repeating any time soon.
