Being somewhat ecologically conscious, I take pride in riding the train to work. Stress free commuting, predictable schedules, and for the most part a hassle free experience.
Bonus is that my employer sponsors a transit pass for my, a tax break for them.
Most of the time it is fine. Sometimes, there are annoyances, like the passengers who reek (either poor personal hygiene, or (far worse) those who smell of being heavy marijuana smokers), or rude passengers, but mostly it is just a joy to settle into a seat, open my kindle, and read while listening to whatever strikes my fancy.
Then the occasional curve-ball is thrown at you. Yesterday was one of these.
I left the office late, I had a couple of documents to finish up, and get submitted, and knowing that I would likely not get to them at home, I just bore down and finished them. About a quarter past five, I walked over to the station in front of the office, and grabbed the train.
About 5 stops into my trip, the engineer comes on and says that the last stop for the trip will be Bonaventura, and that we would have to get out and catch a bus bridge to get around an accident.
Merde.
We hit Bonaventura, we got out, and to where they said the bus bridge would be. One of the gathering crowd actually called the VTA support line. Apparently there was no bus bridge in operation (liars), so a goodly fraction of us fellow train riders walked to the next station, Component. Alas, the wreck appears to be an auto and a light rail train decided to tangle it up at First street and Trimble.
Caught the next train, and what is normally an hour trip took almost 2 hours by the time I walked across the threshold of the door.
Stupid drivers who play chicken with trains. Dumb.
If I would have left 15 minutes earlier, I would have had no issue.
I swear I am cursed.
Being a math geek, and somewhat familiar with Python, I signed up. It was free unless I wanted a certificate (which I didn’t).