The Characters You Meet on the Train

It was another fun ride home tonight. While standing at the platform with the girl from my scenic adventure chatting away while we waited for the train, the train people announced that the train before ours broke down at the other station and was blocking our train! They had to back everything up and queue it down one track. Lovely. Here we go again.

By the time the train finally showed up, there were at least 2 full trains of people waiting to push their way on board. Luckily we were both able to board. It was tight and got separated. I asked a lady if I could squeeze into the seat and for some reason she gave me attributed about the request. When we're in these sorts of situations there is no room for bags on seats or personal space for that matter. I like my personal space as much of the next guy but sometimes you just have to give it up.

At the next stop, the conductors announced that there was another train right behind us (almost at the station) and pleaded with the people standing to get off and catch that train. The attitude lady started speaking hostilely to a lady standing telling her to get off the train. The standing lady refused. Attitude proceed to tell me she thought it was selfish for the standing people not to leave the train. The conductors said it would slow us down at a few of the stops because of problems opening the doors. Sorry, but if I was standing, I would have stayed on the train. So Attitude and I went back and forth. I mentioned the old adage of "the first train that comes take it". She said the other train would be right behind us. I said, yes but it would have to trail by at least 5 minutes for safety purposes and that some people had probably already been waiting a long time to for this train to show up. Why make them wait longer? She said that if she were standing she would get off. I stopped myself short of saying "why don't you do that since you feel sacrifices must be made". The conductors claimed that they could not open the doors if they could not get through the aisles. That's not entirely true because I've seen the doors opened from the outside (including the "traps" that cover the steps).

Anyway, after that comment the lady gave up saying we weren't going to agree. Turned out that she got off at the first stop outside of the city, unlike me that detrains at the last stop. Five minutes can make all the difference in making a connection, hello. People are kooky but good for a laugh.

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