Thursday/Friday: rationalisation

[OT from cottage renovations]

until it is feasible to resume the preferred mode of biking to and from the office there are multiple ways to get there using transit.  one can take the bus to the subway station, ride one stop and then change to the circulator bus for the last leg of the journey.  or one could skip the subway (faster but more expensive) and ride three bus segments.  but best of all is the option to take the commuter train a single stop from the Grove and catch the circulator bus from there.  a single transfer is better than two and the train suits my own preferences. 

our little three car trains are always crowded and though it might be more pleasant to sit than to stand at least the service is well patronised and with any luck the state will look elsewhere to address the current budget shortfall (here's my modest proposal: it could be done in one stroke by canceling the Inter County Congestor; the savings would more than cover all of Maryland's transportation needs for the next several years, as if that would ever happen). 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Rockville station

P894-24 had just pulled out of the Rockville station last Thursday. 

on Friday they weren't taking any chances and assigned two locomotives to push the little train down the line.  that didn't keep it from running several minutes late, for which the crew apologised.  the horsepower-per-ton ratio would have sufficed for the train to climb right up a wall but they said the problem was "a freight train that didn't get out of the way".  anywhere else it might have been characterised as a dispatching issue but the folksy explanation is far more appealing.