Planes, Trains and Complaints

The train is on time today. It doesn’t occur to me until I sit down to write to question why I think the train should be on time, or what does on time mean, or is a train necessary? All these things I take for granted. But in my catalogue of gratitude, I am grateful for the train. I can walk from my apartment to the station and be in Manhattan in well under an hour. Were I to drive, that would by no means be certain.

In any case I don’t like to drive into the city. The drivers are pushy and rude. Traffic is often terrible. The round-trip toll alone for the Lincoln Tunnel is $17.63 (a weird number) during “peak” hours. That doesn’t include gas or parking. While on the train I get a senior discount. The round-trip fare is a bit over $7.00. If I need to use the bus or subway once I reach New York, there’s a senior discount as well.

Many days, however, the train is late, or does not show up, or gets stuck somewhere. NJ Transit is terrible. Amtrak manages the lines and much finger pointing goes back and forth about who is responsible for what. But the long and the short of it is, train services is an embarrassment. The idea that more people would ride the trains if trains were more reliable just does not seem to take hold. Instead, we are stuck in the notion that mass transit is for the masses, and the masses don’t count for much.

Every time I see Pete Buttigieg on a late-night talk show I find myself thinking, Mayor Pete, you’re so clever, you’re such a good speaker, it’s your job as Commissioner of Transportation to do something about AMTRAK. Can you do that please?  It shouldn’t be that hard to get the trains running reliably through the DC Corridor. A problem with Amtrak should not shut down NJ Transit. I am too old to wait for fixes to things that should have been fixed 20 years ago.

And NJ Transit is an embarrassment. Virtually every day this summer there were problems on the Jersey coast line. Even simple signage is a problem. In Secaucus, the major hub, it is necessary to guess which platform is which and how to get there. Yes, I am cranky about this.

In part that’s because my own town dropped the ball. During the pandemic, DeCamp bus, which had provided seven day a week services to Port Authority, ceased operations. NJ Transit had no plan for what happens when a major commuter bus line closes. Local and state officials did not seem too worried about it. Transit finally provided limited weekday bus service, but the weekend service on which many rely has not been restored, nor was weekend train service, which only runs once every two hours from one inconvenient location increased. I wanted transportation to improve, not get worse.  So, I am cranky and figured I’d say so.

I had been planning to write about how lovely it is to ride the train. How I become entranced by the juxtaposition of suburban houses, industrial debris, ongoing construction and the vast meadowlands.  There are all kinds of ducks and egrets, marsh grasses and wildflowers next to all varieties of rusting metal and highway overpasses.

Often, I write or read. I eavesdrop on conversations. I meet neighbors. The rattle of the cars on the tracks creates a soothing background of white noise.  Sometimes I have a seat to myself. Sometimes I nap. The trip creates a welcome break between here and there, a time to prepare or to decompress. It’s my favorite way to get in and out of the city, if only the service were more reliable. If only…

Thought I’d leave you with this one, because I’m heading out of town for a little trip tomorrow.

BIG NEWS--   ALTE will be hosting a gallery show and reception on the evening of Saturday, December 7.  Save the Date. Details will follow.