A Country Bumpkin's first experience with public/mass transit...

I admit it, I’m a country boy, have been all my life, the largest city i’ve lived in was Barre, Vermont for a couple years, lived in Rockport Maine for a few months, but have spent most of my time living in York, Maine, ayuh, I’m a country boy…

So, as an offshoot of my “MacTech’s Fenway Adventure” thread in The Game Room, i figured I’d elaborate on my first experience with rail travel

Hard to believe it’s taken me 42 years to finally experience railway travel, but there it is…

I’ll seperate the basic reviews into the Amtrak review and the Green Line review, then some general thoughts/observations/insane ramblings…

Amtrak review;

The reservation process was easy, hit the website, select round trip trains, and print out the E-Ticket, arrive at station, and I didn’t even need to get an “official” ticket, as the printout had the necessary QR barcode on it, I simply boarded the train, which looked remarkably similar to the cabin of an airliner, same overhead lights, reclining seats, and tray tables, and similar boring reading material in the mesh pockets on the seat in front of me…

I wish I had realized that the train had a standard pair of 110v AC outlets in each seating row, I could have charged my iPhone on the trip down and back, oh well, I know for next time, thanks to the WiFi hotspot in the train, I was able to surf the forums on the trip down, but they blocked YouTube, Netflix, and downloads from the App store (had to switch to my 3G connection for that), makes sense though, imagine a trainfull of passengers all streaming video and downloading apps, bandwith would drop to a crawl…

The trip down was fast, and uneventful, aside from stops along the way to pick up more passengers, somehow I had the thought in my mind that the trip would be a non-stop trip to North Station, on balance, looking back, that was a foolish assumption, and holdover from my experience on airliners, the trip back seemed noticeably slower, and since the carriage lighting stayed lit for most of the journey, I could only doze, the enginer having to sound the train’s horn as it approached roadway crossings didn’t help much either (I was in the first carriage behind the engine)…

…on a side note, I now want to replace the horn in my '07 VW Rabbit with a train horn <evil grin>, I think it’d be rather amusing for a small car like the Rabbit/Golf to have a HUGE horn sound…

the return ride was a little less enjoyable than the ride down, partially due to the window tinting reducing visibility to nearly nothing, except when we approached cities, and the stupid drunk women at the back of the car with their inane chatter didn’t help either, they should’ve stayed in the dining car until they were done getting stupid drunk, and round about the Exeter/Durham area, the seat started getting more uncomfortable, but at this point I’m splitting hairs over nothing much really, overall, I’d rate the ride down to North station a 9 out of 10, and the return ride to Dover NH a 7.5 out of 10, on average, I’d say a solid 8 to 8.5 out of 10, conversely, I’d rate DRIVING into Boston myself a NEGATIVE INFINITY out of 10 (did I mention I HATE driving in Boston, because I do…), I c hink the last time I voluntarily drove into Boston was…wait a tic… I’ve NEVER voluntarily driven into Boston.

I’ve driven in for onsite repairs at my first computer job, but have never actually driven there of my own free will, and don’t see that changing, now that I can use Amtrak, I haven’t been to the New England Aquarium or Boston Museum of Science in ages, mainly because I don’t like driving in Boston, and I missed going to those places, now that I can take an Amtrak train (or C&J Trailways bus) and then the T (or a taxi) to my destination, I can visit them as often as I want/afford now…

As for the “T”…
Like I said in my other thread, my biggest problem with it was the “Sardine Factor”, but this was most likely exacerbated by two factors, first, there being a Sox game at Fenway, lots of Sox apparel being worn on the Green Line, and it also being Rush Hour (Squish-Hour?) as I arrived around 5 PM…

The GL train going to Kenmore station also had three minor power-offs lasting about a minute each, the lights would go out and the carriage would come to a halt, then after a minute or two, it would begin moving again, the GL train going back to North Station after the game was just as crowded, but more reliable, no “reboots”

I can understand why some city dwellers don’t want to own cars now, with an efficient enough mass transit system, it’s not as necessary, however, as a car-owning country bumpkin, one thing I really missed was the sheer freedom of car ownership, you’re not tied down to the shedule and timetables of the subways and busses, you can come and go as you please (barring traffic jams, that is), I hated being at the mercy of the MBTA, I missed the go-anywhere freedom of my car, but OTOH, I definitely appreciated not having to deal with traffic, and more importantly, Massachusetts drivers (otherwise known as “massholes” to the other New England residents)

Now for a bit of insane ramblings…
I usually have a bit of “EDC Gear” (Every Day Carry gear) on me, a couple pocketknives, a couple flashlights, and my Leatherman Surge multitool, however, I had read online accounts of Fenway having some form of security checkpoints and that some attendees had their pocketknives confiscated in order to gain entry, I didn’t want to lose any of my nice knives or flashlights so I left them all in my laptop bag in the trunk of my car.

However, I didn’t want to enter Boston, specifically, the subway system, without means of self protection, most of my pocketknives would exceed Boston’s illogical length restriction anyway, and something told me that one of my favorites, a Spyderco Spyderhawk Salt would not go over particularly well with Boston PD if they discovered me carrying it somehow…

So I grabbed my ratty old Victorinox Tinker Swiss Army Knife and a couple of my old LED Minimag flashlights, a two AA cell model, and a three AA cell model, they could be used as kubatons/striking/impact tools, as well as lighting tools, it’s easier to rationalize a flashlight to an inquisitive officer anyway, "oh this, it’s just a flashlight, why do I have two? Backup in case one gets damaged/broken/lost, you do know the importance of carrying backup gear, right, officer?

Turns out I overreacted, as usual, not only was the trip through the subway terminals completely mundane and uneventful, it turns out that there were no security checkpoints whatsoever, aside from ticket validators, anywhere in the park I could find, I could have easily walked in with my entire EDC load out and no one would even know, not that I would have needed it anyway.

And finally, the crazygonuts insane rambling…

It struck me, mainly on the Subway ride over to the ballpark, but also in the park itself, and in my box seat, that if someone went Zombie in the subway train, or that the Inevitable Zombie Uprising occurred (and we all know that the IZU WILL happen, not a matter of If, but When, right :wink: ) at the ballpark, that I’d basically be screwed (so would everyone else, but that seems less important to me, as it’s not ME :wink: )

So, I spent time on both GL rides contemplating how to escape an IZU in a packed subway car, the results were sadly disappointing, and highlight a big problem with packing lots of people in a small space, what if it wasn’t a zombie virus, but another quick moving infection, same end result…

At the ballpark, there were a few possible temporary escape routes in case of IZU, but the main problem, as with the subway, was lots of people jammed into a space of restricted movement, basically, in the event of the IZU, cities become death traps, so it’s best to avoid them anyway.

That’s what I’d been doing for the last 42 years, basically avoiding people, as I’m antisocial and hate cities, too crowded, too many people, by remaining in the rural areas of New England, I reduce my chances of being trapped in the IZU

Public transport, okay for city dwellers, but I’m keeping my car, thankyouverymuch…