So I was having a lousy commute this morning. I came down into the station at West 4th Street. On the west side of the street there's no turnstiles, just those revolving door/gate things. So I swipe my Metrocard, and it says "Please swipe card again." I swipe again and get the same message. And again. And again. And again. Fearing carpal tunnel from this repetitive motion, I did what you should never do and went to the gate next to this one. I swiped my card and it gave me the message that I had to wait 18 minutes before using my card again. So I go up the stairs and cross the street to the side where there's a token booth clerk. A heated exchange followed, ending up with me buying a token and going through the turnstile. I get down onto the platform and wait forever for an F train while a few vacant V trains (huh, never thought of that: 'V' for vacant) passed. Finally an F train comes in, packed to the rafters. I get in, and I'm vaguely aware of a nun on the train a few seats away from me. I settle in, open my paper, and an announcement comes on saying that because of delays on the line, this F train will be running express after Delancey Street. That was it. I said aloud, "Fuck the MTA!" The nun turned around. It was my college French professor. She was in town through the weekend. We're going to meet up for dinner before she leaves town. At least I wasn't wearing a tee shirt announcing my interest and or participation in some variety of sexual kink. I think that would be mortal, but erupting in vulgarity at the idiocy of the MTA is a venal sin at worst.

Y'know, (does "y'know" work okay for a transitional device?) it calls to mind the whole Amtrak issue. What buisiness does the Federal Government have running a railroad? They do a crappy enough job running local transportation. New York City subways have improved tremendously over the past decade, but still, with MTA and with PATH, you never get the idea that their goal is to get folks from point A to point B quickly and comfortably. PATH runs these Hoboken trains all the time that are at best only 10% occupied. I swear, after the Journal Square and Newark trains come only every 432 minutes after midnight, you still see these regularly running empty Hoboken trains. I have been kinda inclined to cut them some slack in the wake of September 11th since half their system and something like a quarter of their fleet of cars were burried under WTC, but that's just nutty scheduling. Who do the good people of Hoboken (a small municipality, but one now entirely gentrified) line up to felate in order to get this unbelievable perk? I'm sure if Amtrak were to shut down, there would immediately be private entities that would jump in and fill the gap. Already it's possible to get from NYC to Philadelphia by way of New Jersey Transit and SEPTA for about a third of what Amtrak charges.