While I may be the queen of trains, they don't always like to obey my commands. This is unfortunate, because I have to rely on two different train systems to get to and from work. Back in March, boyfriend moved to a great little apartment in New Jersey. He had transferred to the New York office of his company and thereby moved closer to me (while I was still in Connecticut). In May, I received the offer for my dream job on Long Island and, as you know, I jumped at it.
So, now I travel from New Jersey to Long Island everyday. I am subject to the trials and tribulations of both the New Jersey transit and the Long Island Railroad and the two systems do not like to cooperate with each other. Inevitably one train will be late, and the other will be right on time. This is a problem and I'm the girl you see, running through Penn station, mowing down little old ladies with big suitcases. I had to hurdle over a toddler once.
Okay, I'm not really jumping over children and knocking down grannies. But I am that blur you see out of the corner of your eye. Why do my trains always come in on the furthest apart platforms? LIRR - platform 21, NJT - platform 1, blurg!
In the past three weeks there have been three different problems. 1. "Police situation" held up my LIRR train for an hour, then it rained on me. 2. Lightning struck some important train equipment, keeping all LIRR trains from entering New York city. 3. A derailed train in Penn station caused all NJT trains hours of delays and rerouted trains. And I've only been commuting via train for a month, I can't wait to see what the future of train travel brings me!
I will tell you this, I know all the ins and outs of Penn station, like which bathrooms are generally the cleanest.