If You're 30 Minutes Early, You're a Half Hour Late

On my husband's first day of training he planned to show up 30 minutes early. He figured that if he showed up much earlier than that, he'd look like a nerd. So he walked into the classroom, fully expecting to have his pick of the seats. It turned out he was the LAST ONE there. They actually had run out of training packets for him. Since then, I've heard a railroad maxim, "If you're thiry minutes early, you're a half an hour late." That certainly seems to be true. I guess that's how they keep the trains running on time.

So even when the commuter train that he is working is only a half an hour away, he still has the option of staying in a motel. For right now, that's what he's doing. It seems like the best thing to do, especially in the winter.

If he ends up on commuter service regularly, I think even during warm months he should either stay in the motel that is close to the station, or get a GPS with traffic updates. I'd hate for him to miss a train due to a traffic accident. Two or three times in my life I have been more than an hour late to an event, even when I started out leaving an hour ahead of schedule, due to a traffic accident that completely stopped traffic. I'm afraid he could lose his job if that happened to him on the way to work. I'd love to know how other train crew deal with that possibility. It's especially important in passenger service. With freight service the time is not so sensitive.