I don't care if you were being held HOSTAGE in a BANK ROBBERY.

[Amethyst Hunter]

Sucky sighting on TV tonight...

A suburb in my state had a failed bank robbery today that ended with the gunman offing himself (but thankfully, no one else). There were quite a few hostages involved, but they were released without incident, thankfully. For whatever reason - and I think I can guess it, but I don't claim any knowledge of police procedures - the police requested that the Metra trains in that area be shut down temporarily until the standoff was resolved. Which they were, and service later resumed after the crisis had passed.

Well, one blowhard has obviously never been in a situation like that before, or else he'd have had just a little more sympathy for the terror that those poor people were surely going through. No, this assberry was bitching about having to - THE HORROR!! - WAIT for his train; the entirety of his rant could be summed up to be "OMG HOW DARE THEY SHUT DOWN *MY* TRAIN JUST FOR A PIDDLY LITTLE 'OL BANK ROBBERY THAT HAD PEOPLE BEING TAKEN HOSTAGE BY AN ARMED GUNMAN!!"

Congratulations, Sir Ego-Dick. You have just revealed yourself for the insignificant speck of useless matter that you are. Now kindly board the Fail Train for a swift ride to Fail City where you will be permanently booked at the Fail Motel with a crappy diarrhea-inducing buffet, plugged toilets and noisy ventilation.

[ShadedWings]

He did this while he was being interviewed, on tv? If so, I think he just revealed himself to anyone he knows, and lots of people who he doesn't, that he's a jackhole.

[smileyeagle1021]

to give the guy some credit, most transit agencies would have their extra board bus drivers running service on a detour around that area (I was on the route 9 in reno when the Pine MS shooting happened and the police asked all transit to be rerouted and within 5 minutes they had the buses running on a detour and within half an hour they even had temporary stops out along the detour), so complaining about the transit agency not being prepared is legit... complaining that it's because of a bank robbery makes him a douche.

[ShadedWings]

The transport was a train, though, yeah? I wouldn't think trains would be so easy to detour.

[marasbaras]

What a complete tool!

[Chromatix]

I've been stuck on delayed trains a couple of times before. Not because of bank robberies, but due to infrastructure failures. I don't think anyone was that sucky in either case.

The first time was a set of points that had failed just before the station I needed to get off at. The points had changed to the correct position, but hadn't locked in place - which is a safety requirement for passenger trains. It took over an hour to fix, during which the entire East Coast Main Line was blocked in the northbound direction, and I suspect the southbound direction was also restricted somewhat due to the PW workers doing the fixing right next to it.

The second time was when I took a late-evening train to London in order to catch an early-morning long-distance flight. There had just been a winter storm across much of the intervening country, which had damaged large sections of overhead wires en route. Since they were in the middle of repairing all of that, the train eventually ground into London three hours late - by which time the Tube had stopped running (they inspect the tunnels every night). The railway operator laid on taxis for everyone to get wherever they were going, so I got a free ride to the airport instead of having to drag myself across London.

I think that last one was the first and only time I have ever slept on board an aircraft. I have discovered that I really don't sleep well when upright...

Ooh, I remembered a third time. Lightning struck the signalling system for West Coast Main Line around the Scottish border, which essentially ground *everything* to a halt until they could sort out a temporary signalling arrangement.

Then there was the time when the WCML got flooded near Preston, leaving almost no serviceable stock for the line north of there. I ended up on a train that had very clearly been dragged kicking and screaming out of the maintenance sheds on short notice - I'm sure there were dragging brakes on it, or at least that's what it smelled like! But I was very glad to be on a train at all, under the circumstances.

In all of these cases, people wanted to know what was happening, but were understanding once they did know. A little annoyed perhaps, but not sucky.

[smileyeagle1021]

The transport was a train, though, yeah? I wouldn't think trains would be so easy to detour.

actually it would be... TRAX has had to be "detoured" before... they just have the trains north of the detour EOL at the stop just north of where the detour is, have everyone exit, get on buses, and have the buses go to the stop just south of the detour where there is another train waiting to finish the trip.

[ShadedWings]

actually it would be... TRAX has had to be "detoured" before... they just have the trains north of the detour EOL at the stop just north of where the detour is, have everyone exit, get on buses, and have the buses go to the stop just south of the detour where there is another train waiting to finish the trip.

Huh, that's neat! I've only ever been on a train.. hm, twice I think... in my life. Glad to know I can still learn about things!

[GingerBiscuit]

I have to admit to a similar bit of assholery.

I had been travelling all day, from poole to my city, a journey of several hours, by train. This may not be much to americans, but it's quite a bit for a british lass. I was tired, crabby and had been on the move since 12pm- it was now six. I had got to liverpool st with plenty of time to catch the train that would get me home at 9pm.

Over the intercom- 'the london liverpools st service to *city* has been cancelled due to a fatality on the tracks.'

I admit, my compassion and empathy failed me at this moment, especially when I realised this would mean being in london for an hour with no money, and then being stuck on an overcrowded train with all the other delayed and pissed off commuters.

So, instead of 'oh, the poor driver', or 'oh dear, poor person' (probably a suicide) my first thought was 'couldn't the fucker have jumped off a building instead?'

I immediately felt guilty though.

[protege]

I'm sure people were bitching about 9/11, and how Pittsburgh's transit authority was running everything they could. Even buses that had been "retired" were pressed into service. At the time, it was feared that a plane was going to hit one of the high-rise towers (Mellon, PPG, USX, etc.) because not all of the planes were accounted for (Pittsburgh is also home to an airbase, and the busiest inland port in the country, not to mention the traffic on 3 rivers...)

Many people abandoned their vehicles and simply took the bus. Any complaining didn't make the local news though--otherwise it probably would have met with a "5,000 people were just killed, and you're whining about how crowded the bus was?"

At least they were lucky enough to have someone else do the driving--I left work early...and sat in traffic for an hour just to cross the freaking river! Yep, the city had closed many of the tunnels and bridges (over 300 of those alone!) over terrorism fears. As a result, my 45-minute commute took well over 2 hours!

I give props to our transit authority. As screwed up as it is right now because of money problems, they did what they were supposed to. They had an evacuation plan in place and did an awesome job.

[Chromatix]

Transport organisations do usually keep "retired" stock in working-order storage in case of emergency demand. They'll usually skimp on the cosmetic and interior maintenance - it's enough if it'll run reliably and safely.

As a case in point, there's a whole pile of 50-year-old Class 37 locomotives (a good, reliable type which is capable of using almost any line) sitting around at a depot somewhere in Britain - all in working order or nearly so. If World War Three breaks out, or an important other class of locomotive is recalled for safety reasons, you can bet they'll be scrambling to use them.

Some other locomotive classes have begun a "semi-retirement" on "Thunderbird duty". They're considered too expensive to maintain on regular duty, but they're still reliable enough to sit around at strategic places, and pull other trains out of a pickle when required.

A few others have found niche duties that keep them useful, such as the Class 20 which is still often seen double-heading a nuclear flask train - something that doesn't need much power but does need the two locomotives for safety and security. You can bet that all the still-extant Class 20s would be found something even more useful to do if things got tight. Such as hauling around old BR Mark 2 coaching stock, which I'm sure still exists in places - officially kept on for steam-hauled specials, which need the vacuum brakes rather than the air ones.

So I bet there are depots full of old buses sitting around in various places too.

[ADoyle90815]

Once when I was using public transportation, there was a fatal car accident on one of the major bus routes, so the company had set up a temporary detour within minutes, yet someone still complained that the bus couldn't stop at the regular stop. As there were buses still running on schedule for that route, there was no need for the company to use any of the retired buses.

[Crazeyal]

I immediately felt guilty though.

Large LARGE differance between a person minding their own business and getting held HOSTAGE and some person risking OTHER peoepl's lives by ending theirs. No sympathy for the suicide from me. Have problems? Sympathy. Empathy. FROM ME!

Want to end your life in a dramatic fashion that endagers the train, it's passengers and causes thousands of dollars in damages?!?!?

nooo

No asshattery on your end.

[wagegoth]

I've run into some similar issues, since I've been taking public transit. But stuff happens even if you drive. Today, I carpooled in and we had slow to bad traffic (much worse than usual) on every freeway and side street we used.

There have been a couple of suicides that totally messed up BART. I have to agree with Crazeyal, someone who makes other people part of and witnesses to their suicide get no sympathy from me. I've read about train operators and engineers who have had to go to therapy regularly due to watching people commit suicide in front of them.

There have been track issues that messed up BART. One day, there was a police action at a BART station that resulted in several ACTransit buses (which I also ride) being pulled from their regular routes to take people from one station before the police action, and then carry the passengers across the Bay into San Francisco. Since they pulled regular buses, many routes were only running half as often or less until BART was operational again. ACTransit and BART are completely separate entities. BART does not keep buses as backup for operations.



One day, I was driving through the then small town I lived in Nevada, on the main street, when I glance over at some activity. Outside the jewelry store, there were two police officers with shotguns, who appeared to be ready to storm the store. The street was not closed, traffic was not blocked, I didn't see any other officers or cars. If the robber hadn't given up shortly thereafter, there could very well have been a bloodbath in the middle of the main drag from all the shooting that could have occurred.

[otakuneko]

What's a train?
Okay okay, joking. Dallas did (just recently!) get a "light rail" system.