Weekend subways are horrible. On the weekends, MTA does track and station work so parts of various routes will be delayed or redirected. The N and Q trains I take to Manhattan frequently have work done on them over the weekends. Typically, one will take a train one or two stops in the wrong direction to catch an express train that bypasses the tracks at the stations where repairs are being done. This can usually add 20 plus minutes to a regular commute.
This past Saturday was especially horrible. I got to the station, just barely missing one train, not because I was running late or anything, it was you know, the slow walking people in front of me. Anyway, I get to the platform and wait. I watch one express train pass (the one I would have been on if not for all of those other people). Then a second express goes by. I wait on the platform for a bit longer. Then the train comes. Oh wait, it’s another express train. Finally after 25 minutes of standing on a platform waiting for a Ditmars bound train to take me down two stops to Astoria Boulevard to catch a Manhattan bound train, the train comes.
Once at Astoria Boulevard, I again wait on the platform for about ten minutes. I guess all of the express trains left too soon. Then as I finally get on the train to go to Manhattan so I can work, the train comes to a stop. I got on a Broadway avenue, went past 30th to Astoria Blvd, and before the train got past 30th Ave. it begins to crawl along. Then it stops halfway between 30th and Broadway. Not a pause, a complete, 20 minute stop of not going anywhere. All the while I watch 3 trains go by in the other direction, literally “nothing is going my way.”
As we finally begin moving again, we pass Broadway avenue. I check my clock and realize, it took me an hour to get nowhere. (Insert a snide condescending remark about all television programming here.) After that, my commute was uneventful all the way in to Manhattan until I prepare to get off the train. I’ll tell the rest of the story about what happened later when I decide to talk about subway etiquette and the changes I’ve noticed in myself when it comes to being more blunt.
Ooh, it’s like my very first “to be continued...”
An hour to get back to where you started... sounds like the "citified" version of a maze! The more I hear about your NYC trains, the less sense they make to me. =)
ReplyDeleteShould have just walked over the bridge to work. You'd have gotten there faster! =)
ReplyDeleteI'm rather curious about next post. You tend to have an interesting perspective on things that I don't even think to notice.