Thursday, June 30, 2005

Alien abduction can't be worse...

Haven't posted in many moons but last night was the worst -- the 8:20 and 10:45 pm trains to Albany were delayed and finally combined, departing at 2:30 am the next morning. The trip which normally takes 2 hours and 25 minutes took 4 hours, due to ongoing track repairs and the need to replace an engineer mid-trip who had worked too many consecutive hours. Tempers were boiling at Penn Station and the customer relations staff unable and/or unwilling to provide any idea of when or if the trains would finally arrive. While uninterested in our complaints they were quick to complain how hard their jobs were. Finally they called the Amtrak police when some passengers raised their voices a little too loudly.


This morning I see that a proposed cut to Amtrak funding has been rescinded and that they're getting more money than ever.