Tuesday, April 03, 2007

"Just block the doors for me!"

A seemingly first-time BART passengers today did something completely idiotic. It was obvious they were running late since I saw them just being dropped off with their suitcases as I was inserting my tickets in the ticket gate. 2 minutes later, the train arrived.

As I was walking into the train, I see the wife running up the escalators yelling down to the husband, "Hurry, we're going to miss the train! Hurry!"

He was obviously still struggling with the suitcases (they had 2 huge ones) and could not quite hand carry them up the escalators. He yelled back, "Tell them to wait! I'm almost there."

The wife walks into the train, confused, looked around, and then stands in the middle of the doors, yelling, "Hurry, the doors will close soon."

The husband was visible at this point, he was finally making his way up the escalators towards the top, but still needed to drag the suitcases onto the train. He yells, "Just block the doors for me!"

At this time, we heard the warning, "Doors are closing, please stand back from the doors." Followed by the "ding" sound. The wife must freaked out because she didn't block the doors (thank goodness!) and she didn't step out of the train to help her husband. Instead, she ended up in the train, riding with the rest of us to Rockridge!

She was panicking....she must not have had a cellphone on because she didn't attempt to call him. She ran out of the train at Rockridge, stressed out, looking from right to left. I hoped she had the sense to just ride the Pittsburgh Baypoint train back to Orinda and re-unite with her husband there, or just wait patiently for him to arrive at Rockridge and join his train.

The next train was only 5 minutes behind......they really didn't need to put themselves in such a situation.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Morons.

Ok, rookies. :)

Anonymous said...

so, if he had not carried"her luggage" maybe he would have been faster.
In any event, SHE was the fool. Of course you hold the door for your
companion, that's why one who is faster goes first. And in rush hour,
maybe its a five minute wait, but if you use transit outside of rush the
15-20 minute wait is a poor trade off for someone's door etiquette in my
view. BTW 33 years agom a BART platform attendant threatened to eject
me as I held the door for my seven year old. You don't abandon your
kids, eh?

Anonymous said...

Riders should know that blocking the train doors is all it may take to take a train OUT OF SERVICE.. it's better for all involved to just wait for the next one