Monday, March 02, 2009

Can't get worse than a delayed train on a rainy day

First day back at work from maternity leave and of course it's gotta be a horrid commute. The train was 8 minutes delayed and by the time it reached Orinda, it was at max capacity. I ran to the end of the train and still barely squeezed myself on. After the 15+ folks squeezed onto the end of the train, there really was barely enough air to breath. The windows were misty and fogged, and faces were about 4 inches from each other. It was nearly impossible to NOT make eye contact since eyes were at every angle you turn. My arms were touching someone, my back was touching someone else, my hair was touching someone too. And don't even get me started on the scents-- you can smell what someone had for breakfast, and if it was just coffee, consider yourself lucky!!

I felt bad for shorter passengers. I saw many of them struggling to hang on to the overhead safety bar. One woman next to me barely grip the bar with her fingers and as as result, she kept on holding on to ME!!!! I looked at her, and she said, "I got to hang on to something, sorry." I felt bad for her so I let her push me for balance every so often.

Just when I thought things could not get worse...a young man walked in at West Oakland who seemed to have bronchitis. His deep, thick, cough scared everyone on the train. I swore I tried my best to hold my breath until we reached SF but couldn't do it of course.

Finally after the mass exodus at Embarcadero and Montgomery, I sat down and drenched my hands in Purell. I didn't even try to catch my shuttle, with the delayed train, I missed 2 shuttles already and wasn't going to bother running.

Great way to get back into work with this morning's commute! Thanks for the welcome, BART!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

your main focus seems to be hygiene and i COMPLETELY agree - as environmentally friendly and convenient as public transportation is, the problem is that there is no way we can be reassured that we're not picking up pathogenic bacteria from the tons of other people who ride with us. it's like being stuck in 19th century england for an hour...if a pandemic breaks out, avoid bart! do you know if bart ever cleans their cars? i've wondered this for a while...(esp. considering the trash stuck between the seats and the sides of the train), but i think the best thing to do is to find something to do - distract yourself so you can ignore the smelly/coughing/loud/plain annoying person next to you. books, ipods, newspapers - i prefer sleep seeing how i'm lacking - and the scenery's beautiful now that the weather's clearing up!