Strangers-On-The-Train

Daily life on the Los Angeles metro rail.

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Walking the Tracks

Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was walk the old railroad tracks with my grandfather. We would look for loose spikes and frogs in ponds. The trees and wild blackberries made it feel like an adventure written by Mark Twain. Walking the tracks in downtown Los Angeles does not have the same charm. We are a band of misfits walking the less than idyllic streets of a pedestrian unfriendly city. There is safety in numbers but much like a horror film people keep disappearing into thin air. Here is hoping this little Indian survives the story.

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I love the dancers on the train.

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Little Flirt

A mother and her three year old son got on the train. It was crowded so she stayed by the doors with the little boy held close to her legs. When he though no one was looking he stuck his hand out into the path of the doors to see if they would close or reopen. He saw me notice and smiled. For the next few stops he would look up at me and raise his eyebrow. I would raise mine in return and he would smile and look away. His mom is gonna have her hands full as he gets older.

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Odds

First, I must confess that although I work in accounting I am not a numbers person. So, I don't actually know what the odds are. I ride the train with hundreds of people Monday through Friday, twice a day. I of course have regulars that I see most of the time. Different ones for each direction of travel. I have odd hours normal people don't have. I was surprised to see a morning regular, who I saw this morning, on my train home. That has only ever happened once before. It's the little things.

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Redline Gospel Train with Tyrone. Tonight's selections include Lean On Me, Stand By Me and a gospel number to the tune if Louie Louie. Riding the train late at night can be a terrible thing but my night was made better by a man with a ukelele.

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Cosmic April Fools Joke

I have missed the train by mere seconds on a few occassions but today I had the doors of two consecutive trains close inches from my face. Do I take this as cosmic rejection? At first, yeah I felt rejected but then I realized it was April Fools Day and something like this always tends to happen to me. At least I got it out of the way early. Besides, I always wanted to spend an extra twenty minutes underground with the strange and stranger.

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NO WAR

I hate missing the train but I hate it more when I watch the train pull away in front of me because I can't get around the lady who moves at a glacial pace while looking at her phone. It turned out that if it wasn't for the glacier I wouldn't be able to tell you about NO WAR. As the next train came I saw a light flashing and realized it said NO WAR at a slow rhythmic pulse. The train pulled away and it went up on the wall across the tracks. The metro workers started pointing and yelling at the pillar to my left. Another worker on my side of the tracks slowly approached the pillar. On the other side was a middle aged man with a strobe light and NO WAR plate sitting on the ground. He moved it to point at the wall closest to him as the metro worker approached. Then in an act of defiance started pointing it at the train. I boarded the train and the metro worker was still trying to talk him into pointing it back at the wall and the sheriffs were walking up. Thank you glacier lady for introducing me to NO WAR.

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Not Surprised

Totally just witnessed a drug deal on the train.

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Trains as Early Warning Systems for DIsease

Mark my words, spring cold and flu season has started. I firmly believe that public transportation is where disease cultivates and spreads. Yesterday, there was no one visibly sick on the train. Today I saw three. Beware. The flu is coming. 

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Train Karma

Today I got to leave work early. Filled with hope for actually getting to have a normal evening I boarded the train. We got one train length down the track and stopped. Waited...waited...and then the announcement "we are having technical difficulties." The lights go out. The train gets quiet. Lights come back on and we wait... We start moving again but this time it is backward into to station we barely left. The train across the platform waits patiently for us. Currently getting up close and personal with my fellow commuters.

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For the Love of Soccer

On the way home the other night I got on the purple line and ended up at the Wilshire/Vermont station. I had always wanted to see it because it is a layered station where the southbound track runs above the northbound track. Also, the design of that station is beautifully done. While there I decided to check to see if this station had mice like the 7th street transfer station. So, I stood on the edge staring down at the track. Inevitably I see a lot of trash, lost headbands, paper, cups and the occassional article of clothing while looking for the tiny residents of Track City. No movement. No scurrying. No Track City suburbs. Just as discouragement was setting in something moved to my right. I turned and saw a guy jump down onto the track. He scurried across to the far side next to the wall, bent down and came up with a soccer ball! He threw it up onto the platform and scurried back across the track and up to safety. He then collected the ball and began to practice his ball control. Happy as a clam. :-)

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Happy Valentine's day to all the ladies.

Blue Line Conductor

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Traveling home at night I often miss the redline by mere seconds and end up having to kill ten minutes til the next train. I like watching the mice that live under the tracks. I imagine a giant labyrinth like mouse city that runs throughout the red and purple lines.

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Ominous

Feeling super safe when I arrive at the station to a dead train and the one that shows up next has no passengers.

Cue twilight zone style music.

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Looking For A Valentine? Metro To Host ‘Speed Dating On The Red Line’ - CBS Los Angeles

If it wasn't at lunch I would totally do this. Just to see who would be participating and then tell you all about it. 

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The Driver is in the Rear

There is a rule on the Expoline that you can't have a bike in the front car where the conductor is. Something about safety. This rule does not apply on the Redline where every day is an adventure and people live dangerously. All kidding aside the Redline is scary as shit sometimes. 

Back to my story.

Because of that rule I actually tend to sit in the last car on the train. So, there I am sitting in the last seat in the last car of the train going home and I hear a voice through my headphones. I look up, curious to what is going on. Usually its someone talking to themselves or someone that no one else can see. This time I see a woman quite a few rows down from me and she is pointing at me and of course everyone is staring at me. I look around unsure of the reason for her attention. I pull out one of my earbuds. 

"You can't have a bike near the door where the driver is. They will tell you to move." -crazy lady who thinks the conductor drives the train from the rear.

"I know. The driver is at the other end of the train. That is why I sat here." -me

"This is the back of the train. The driver is way down there." -helpful patron who knows how trains function. 

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Look ma, new monitors!!!