I spent the evening having dinner with a fellow folding bicycle riding friend I met on a bike forum. Neil is a really nice guy who lives in Jersey. We were supposed to meet up and ride but it was raining in New York and we decided to have pizzas instead, near Penn Station.
I left for Grand Central Terminal pedaling the wet streets. It was a cold, cold drizzle. I was so glad for the biking gloves I picked up earlier. No more blue hands.
When I got on my train from Grand Central to Springdale CT, let's just say I learned a few American suburban train commuting lessons:
1. Do not sleep too soundly. You may miss your station.
2. Off-peak trains are not like peak trains that go straight from Grand Central station to your suburban station. Often you need to get off and switch to, say, the New Canaan branch.
3. Many suburban stations are almost dead as a door nail at night. That means no cabs. So there I was, at Darien station, 4 stations away from my actual stop, Springdale on the New Canaan branch, not knowing how to get back to my actual station and having no one to ask. Oh and it was raining and dark.
4. Trains during off-peak in many suburbs operate in ONE HOUR INTERVALS. So once I crossed over to the opposite track of Darien station, a long walk due to construction, I had to wait a full hour for the train going back to the Stamford interchange station.
5. It helps to be in a nice neighbourhood if you are stuck at wrong suburban station at night.
6. A five minute late train can mean you miss your connecting train, which means, yes, you guessed it, One Hour Wait Hell.
7. Listen to track change announcements even when the arrival/departure screen says nothing has changed. Or you will be standing on Track 3 while your train pulls into Track 5. And you have no time to climb the stairs to cross over before it pulls away, thereby sending you into, uh-huh, One Hour Wait Hell.
8. Your watch says 12.07am. The station clock says 12.10am. The station clock is what the train follows, and yes, it's almost pulling away. Run.
9. It is okay to tap into your inner Singaporean kiasu-ness and wait at the track earlier by five to ten minutes. Not doing so can mean OHWH.
That is how a one-hour train ride becomes a three-hour adventure. Oh, just so you know, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, that runs these trains? They are raising fares by as much as 25% and cutting routes soon, unless they get a government bailout.
Nice.
Update: According to @wintay: "It's pronounced 'da-ri-anne'. I've lived in Fairfield, Connecticut for 2 yrs before. Your train descriptions brings back memories."
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