The Commute from Hell

I hate commutes from hell. Hate hate hate.

Okay. Let me calm down and explain. I live in Astoria, Queens. I take the N and W train to work. It is the only subway line in my neighborhood. And this morning, it was not running. There was no N service. There was no W service. It was about 18 degrees outside. It was too cold to walk and too cold to bike. Even if I could bike, office buildings are notoriously pissy about bicycles.

(Side note: My office let me keep my bike in the mailroom when I rode it to work during the transit strike. It was actually FUN riding to work! Of course, there really isn't any place to keep the bike aside from the mailroom. And I had to use the freight elevator. Otherwise, I'd ride to work on a regular basis. Sigh.)

Anyway, the reason for the subway screwup was a broken rail on 59th and Lexington Avenue. That's not in Queens, people. That's in Manhattan. You can't run the N/W lines in Manhattan, but you CAN still run the trains in Queens. And in the case of the stranded commuters, there was a simple solution. From a fellow sufferer:

What boggles the mind is why they aren't doing what they normally do when there's a conflict at Lex - run the N/W as a shuttle down to Queensboro and shunt everyone off on the 7.

This is a very good question. Whenever the MTA does its periodic "track work," they simply have the N/W terminate its run at Queensborough Plaza (the final Queens stop) so passengers can transfer to the 7 line, which also stops at Queensborough and then goes into Manhattan.

Finally, some higher-up at MTA said, "Durrrr, yeah, we can still operate the N in Queens, can't we?" I caught an N and took it to Queensborough and from there I caught a 7 line into Manhattan. The trains both crawled along the tracks and I was packed in and pissed off and I got to work late. But at least I got to work.

Fucking shitty commutes. And that's my second commute from hell this week. The first one on Tuesday and the delay was due to a "sick passenger." For God's sake, if you're sick, stay home!!!! Call in sick!

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