the vynsane asylum

This afternoon I ventured to GCT from my place of work in order to buy a step-up ticket for my afternoon commute in advance. I have a monthly ticket to Beacon, NY and needed to purchase a step-up ticket to Wassaic. I went to the last available attendant on the south-west bank of windows, and promptly explained the situation thusly:

"I have a Beacon NY monthly ticket and need to get a step-up ticket for the difference to Wassaic"

Her response was:

"Well, what do you want from me?"

When I tried to explain the situation again in a different manner, she seemed to not know what I meant by "step-up" even though it is commonly used on the trains, and informed me in an unpleasant and rather exasperated tone:

"I need to see your ticket, I can't do anything without your ticket."

Presumably I am required to be a mind-reader whereas the attendant need not even be required to understand speech. The exasperation in her voice lent me to believe that anything a bit more complex than pushing buttons and printing tickets was a gross imposition.

Eventually she called what I can only assume to be a supervisor or manager over, and he handled the calculation of the difference and told her what to punch into the computer, which apparently is usually supposed to do the real work.

At the outset I said, rather regrettably, "That was pretty simple, wasn't it?" to whit she said some snide remark that I couldn't hear for the three inches of bullet-proof glass between us and the fact that I had already moved away from the counter.

I ask for no reparation. I simply wanted to apprise you of this situation, denoting my unhappiness with the service I pay quite a lot for on a monthly basis.

I dig this up from the island of unanswered posts.

Why?

Because it looked lonely and unanswered.


Having read the missive from our esteemed webmaster, I wonder what are the repercussions of NOT getting a step-up ticket. Would anyone know the difference? I know the LA subways are only cursorily monitored. You could conceivably buy a one way ticket down here or even not buy a ticket at all and get away with it. Nobody is actually on the subway to check tickets. They only sometimes have ticket checkers at any given stop. So, given the ineptitude of the cashier, had you NOT purchased the difference and gotten on the train, had you actually been stopped, you could say you had attempted to purchase the difference and was told it was unnecessary by the cashier, and if that was wrong, you can certainly pay the difference on this end. But if you DIDN'T get stopped. Well then, you just got to travel the extra distance for free.

Ahh...the grand difference between LA and NYC, our mass transit is used a lot more. The train from Grand Central is more than a "subway". Our subways here you just swipe a card and you can get around the island and outer boroughs without paying more, but to take one of the railroad lines out of Penn Station or Grand Central, there are actual conductors that walk the train checking tickets. Now true, sometimes you can get lucky and not get caught, but if they have to charge you on the train, when the ticket windows are open, it does cost more. You might be able to plead with them, but unless you are of their persuasion, it most likely won't work.

I understand our webmasters plight. It sucks. What's even worse is that the MTA, which he pays too much money too already for there lousy work, is saying that they have a huge deficit right after last year when they were caught having a huge surplus and not telling anyone. The MTA is one of the biggest bunch of fucktards around, somehow I think Snigtad is involved. Carbon footprint my ass, mass transit sucks no matter how you cut it. I'm thinking of taking a job as a shut in just so I can stay home.

I've only taken an actual train once, and it was in Korea, so I couldn't argue with them even if I wanted to. When we got to Seoul, we switched over to the subway and we were able to figure it out pretty easily because they were kind enough to put stuff in both Korean and English.

It is probably much smaller than the one in NYC, but the Metro system in DC was real easy to use. I had the swipe card so I could zoom through the gate and never had to deal with any of the employees.

DC and London have amazing efficient mass-transit systems. You can live as far as a two-hour drive out and never have to use a car there. (Of course, if you live that far from the city, it's probably a good idea to get groceries locally.)

San Francisco's is pretty good. Spotty, but pretty good.

LA's... ugh. The less said, the better. In the IE, it doesn't even exist. You can take Amtrak to LA, or get a bus to the grocery store locally in most cities, but it's a huge clusterfuck.

I can't tell you how glad I am that California just passed a funding proposition for high-speed rail between major cities in California, and, I hope, finally a realization of high-speed rail to Vegas. One of the arguments against was, "The problem is local congestion, not driving from LA to San Francisco." Yeah, but there's a fucking reason I never go to San Francisco, or to LA. The state may as well lead on something.

HA! i forgot about this one...

yes, jdr3, having been a new yorker once (he's a jerseyite now... traitor...) knows the deal. it's a true-to-form train with conductors/ticket-takers who are notoriously pissy on the MNR lines. that said, the step-up fee was all of $3.26 and i never even showed the conductor the ticket. i never got a refund either, but whatever.

the DC subway is alright, but it looks rather dank and grim. dark, concrete walls... ugh! at least the NYC subway system has nice tiling. but then again, nothing compares to the NYC system.

When I rode the DC Metro, I was typically the only white guy on the train for the first 3 or 4 stops. The funny thing is that the only time I was ever nervous or uncomfortable while riding the train was when I was in uniform and sitting next to a bunch of war protestors (they had signs, bongos, and everything). It was only for a few stops and we pretended we didn't see each other. After that, I carried my uniform in and changed when I got there.

The public transportation system in Vegas blows. I've heard people say that the bus schedule is terrible. The monorail is expensive and inconvient. Most of the tourists on the Strip take the double decker busses (they are called "The Deuce" by the way).

I can't tell you how glad I am that California just passed a funding proposition for high-speed rail between major cities in California, and, I hope, finally a realization of high-speed rail to Vegas.

They have been working on the environmental study for the high speed mag lev train from LA or Anaheim to Vegas for a couple years. Yes it is all mountains and desert, but there is a bunch of protected stuff out there, plus it is expensive. Who knows if it will ever happen.

If there was a fast cheap train to Vegas, I would be headed there once a month.

anarky wrote:DC and London have amazing efficient mass-transit systems. You can live as far as a two-hour drive out and never have to use a car there. (Of course, if you live that far from the city, it's probably a good idea to get groceries locally.)

San Francisco's is pretty good. Spotty, but pretty good.

Japan's mass transit train system is second to none. It's amazing and the timing of the trains would make Mussolini jealous. You can literally get anywhere in the country by train and it's very cheap to ride (it's something $7 round trip to Yokohama which is about a 60 mile round trip). I very highly doubt I'll even bother with a car when I finally move off the damn ship.

Rollo Tomassi wrote:If there was a fast cheap train to Vegas, I would be headed there once a month.

I thought there were some cheap flights (as in under $100), so I did a quick search. I was wrong. The cheapest I saw was $118 and there were some package deals that included 2 nights in a hotel for $245.

Whilst living in NYC I never had to take Metro North, I was more a LIRR passenger as I usually headed out that way. Doesnt sound much different though. The worst is falling asleep on those type trains and waking up past your stop. time to buy a new ticket back the other way.

There are no cheap flights anywhere anymore. And you have to deal with delays, security, cramped quarters, and shitty service. As Emperor Daddypants would say, "Airlines are DOOMED!!"

kidhuman wrote:Whilst living in NYC I never had to take Metro North, I was more a LIRR passenger as I usually headed out that way. Doesnt sound much different though. The worst is falling asleeppassing out on those type trains and waking up past your stop. time to buy a new ticket back the other way.

fixed your post.

yeah, MNR is similar to LIRR, but with marked, though subtle, differences. first, the lines don't cross-cross. the last time they all come in to the same station is 125 st./harlem. from there they branch out and never meet again, whereas on LIRR almost all western spurs (NYC, flatbush ave, LIC) come together at jamaica before branching out to the western spurs. there's also a lot less stops on most of MNR, so trains go a lot faster. additionally, my line is electric half of the way, and diesel the rest. most of LIRR save for the montauk line is electric. this means most of the LIRR train cars are newer than those i take. people that go shorter distances have electric cars, but my cars are pulled by a diesel/electric hybrid engine, so we have older pull cars that only use electric to power lights and stuff - they're not actually generating any wheel-power. the schedule is much more 24-hours on LIRR than on MNR as well - you may have to wait up to 3 hours between midnight/early morning trains on LIRR, but you'll wait 6 on MNR.

however, there's little concern for me waking up much longer than maybe 20 minutes beyond my stop, as i'm the third-to-last station on my line. also, with the monthly ticket, it doesn't matter. i can ride as long as i want, as many times as i want. of course, that kind of freedom costs a lot. $327.68/month to be exact! it's rather ridiculous. if i could work from home (which i COULD easily do - it's just convincing THEM of that...) i could save $4000 a year. i'm thinking of using that in this year's performance review/annual raise - say "don't give me a raise, just let me work from home. that's a $4000 raise you don't have to pay for!"