A Bright Spot in a Difficult Week

My husband's first week as a commuter conductor trainee was really hard. The cars were overcrowded all week. Regulars were insulted that he didn't remember them. Some people thought they were above having to actually pay for tickets. Some passengers were unaware of which side of the station the train would be arriving on and would run up to the train on the wrong side- where there was no platform. My husband was instructed to ignore their pleas to be allowed to board- because allowing them to board on the wrong side would encourage passengers to continue this extremely dangerous practice.

The bright side was the crew. My husband really thought they were a neat group of people. He found them to be informative, safety-conscious, and gracious. He noticed that they truly did show concern for passengers with disabilities, and passengers who needed a little extra help. They went out of their way to show my husband the ropes. Even when they were forced to assign my husband to his own car due to the crowds, they were very understanding about how overwhelming the new duties were to my husband.

When he gets called back from furlough he will probably be assigned to passenger service for a couple of years. He's not looking forward to that-- he'd rather do freight-- but at least the people were decent human beings. That's the bright spot in a very difficult week.