Just in case you aren’t paying attention to my posts over on Twitter, the Harlem Line has some big delays today. Around two hours ago, there were 15–20 minute delays between North White Plains and Wassaic due to trees fouling the tracks near Hawthorne. The issues with downed trees got bad enough that about an hour ago service was suspended in both directions from North White Plains to Brewster. The newest update from Metro North is that there will be continued delays in both directions, and passengers will be bused between Pleasantville and Mount Kisco. If you are going to be riding the trains this afternoon, Metro North’s Train Time may be helpful. If you aren’t already, signing up for MTA alerts is also a good idea. I of course will be reposting those alerts on twitter whenever they become available. (Even though Metro North has a twitter account now, they don’t seem to be posting that information there).

What a good morning this has turned out to be. Lets just say that I normally take a morning train at 7:13, but today that was the time I woke up, since I forgot to set my alarm. Now I know that the next train from Goldens Bridge leaves at 7:25, since I used to take that train. I am sitting on that 7:25 train right now. I didn’t brush my hair, wash my face, or make my lunch. And I have to pee, very badly. Which probably means I have to use the bathroom in White Plains. Which is just as bad as an outhouse, port-a-potty, or a train bathroom. In fact, I’d probably rather use an M7 bathroom over the bathroom in White Plains.

Anyways, the 7:25 train is one of those diesel trains that come down from Wassaic. Over on My Effing Commute John wrote one day about taking this train, and how nobody on the train talks. If you talk you are a “rookie”. This is totally true, and it amuses me. It is sort of like a different type of people ride these trains as opposed to the trains I am used to taking. I shall dub these people The Wassaic People.

The 7:25 from Goldens Bridge typically looks like this

As previously mentioned, The Wassaic People don’t talk on the train. If you do talk, you will get scowled at. This happened to me when I was carrying on a short conversation with the conductor that came to collect my ticket. Most times, Wassaic people sleep on the train. The good majority do this, though there are a few that read, or are on their laptops. When you exit the train and watch it pass by, you can see all the little heads of the people leaning against the windows, sleeping. I find this amusing.

I was totally taking over the world – playing Risk on my laptop

Wassaic People like to stand in the vestibule. Shoreliner cars have vestibules at the ends of the cars. There is a sign on the door saying passengers are prohibited from standing while the train is in motion, but nobody ever follows warning signs like that. If you are getting off at White Plains, people walk and wait in the vestibule right after Valhalla. You do want to be first to get off, don’t you? On the train I normally take you just sort of stand up and exit about five seconds before the train stops. I can understand this behavior in Grand Central, people want to get out before the rat race begins. But this seems to happen at every stop this train makes. Even the little stops, where perhaps only two people get off.

Wassaic People also tend to be a little more angry than other train riders. Perhaps because they have to sit for a lot longer than the rest of us to get to Grand Central. Perhaps it is the fumes of the diesel engine. This increased little bit of anger or stress is probably why I get scowled at while riding this train. And if you are a new rider, you may be concerned about people taking their anger out against the doors. People kick the doors on these trains. There are buttons toward the bottom of the door that when pressed open the door. Mind you, I said pressed. One does not need to violently kick the door. But many people do.

The kick-me button

This is apparently the Wassaic way. Honestly, I don’t know which is better. I started taking the earlier train so I could at least have no difficulty in finding a seat. But when I take that train, I always get annoyed by the obnoxious school kids, or the occasional person getting drunk on their way to work at Target. I suppose it is an interesting ride either way.

The holiday season is fast approaching, and many interesting holiday themed events will be happening along the Harlem Line. The Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show opens tomorrow, which is accessible via Metro-North’s Botanical Garden station. Grand Central’s Holiday Gift Fair, located in Vanderbilt hall, opens on Monday. Starting on Wednesday the Transit Museum’s Annex in Grand Central will host their Holiday Train Show (please note that this will be closed on Thanksgiving). And of course, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will be held on Thursday. Of course, Metro-North has come up with some new holiday schedules, including additional trains, to help you get to these events.

Thanksgiving Metro-North Schedules

Thanksgiving Eve 11/25 extra early getaway trains will be offered, beginning at 1 PM. Because of decreased ridership in the PM peak, some trains will be combined or eliminated.

Thanksgiving Day 11/26 Operating on a holiday schedule with extra AM inbound service for those of you going to the Macy’s Parade. There will also be lots of late morning/early afternoon outbound service, and plenty of inbound evening service to get you back home.

Day after Thanksgiving 11/27 operating on a “Saturday” schedule with extra service during the AM and PM peak time periods.

For the most up to date schedule information, consult the schedule search on Metro-North’s website. Information for the Harlem Line’s Wassaic branch can be found here.

Regarding events, I’m trying to come up with a nice schedule of all varieties of events accessible by the Harlem Line. These events will be listed on the right side of the site. If you know of an event that I should mention, please contact me!

If you’re looking to go to the victory parade for the Yankees tomorrow, Friday November 6th, Metro North will be running a few extra trains on both the Harlem and Hudson Lines. Extra cars will be added to trains on the New Haven Line.

The ticker-tape parade will begin on Broadway at Battery Place at 11 AM and continue uptown along the “Canyon” to Chambers Street, ending at 12:30 PM. At 1PM a ceremony will be held at City Hall Plaza, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg will present the Bronx Bombers with the Keys to the City. The ceremony will end at 2:30 PM.

The extra train on the Harlem Line will make the following stops:
Southeast: 8:30 AM
Brewster: 8:33 AM
Goldens Bridge: 8:43 AM
Katonah: 8:47 AM
Mount Kisco: 8:53 AM
Chappaqua: 8:59 AM
North White Plains: 9:10 AM
White Plains: 9:14 AM
Harlem-125th St: 9:37 AM
Grand Central: 9:48 AM

From Grand Central, you can take the subway, 4 or 5 train downtown to any of the following stations:
Fulton Street, Wall Street, Bowling Green or Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall. Additional subway and bus information can be found here.

Also, for anyone who rides the train in the Wassaic area, trains will not be running this weekend due to bridge work, November 7th and 8th. Instead, buses will ferry riders down to Southeast. These buses will follow the normal train schedule.

Ah, White Plains train station, you have the most interesting of people. I think all the rain we’ve been having lately has been stressing people out. The other day the taxis couldn’t seem to do anything other than honk their horns loudly at each other, prompting a rather unkempt looking man sitting on the benches to scream out, “SHUT THE HELL UP!”

Do you know what calmed that man down? Another strange man wanders over, singing “I’m here to save the day!” He sat next to the other man, and they began a conversation. The two of them, certainly a match made in heaven.

Another guy I tend to see at the train station is a man that despite the warm temperature, is always wearing a winter coat. He also gets into very animated conversations with himself. He does keep to himself, and doesn’t bother anyone, so that is always a good thing. While sitting around waiting for my bus the other day I watched him play a game with himself. I’m not quite sure what the rules of this game were, if there were any at all. But he had a handfull of coins that he would shake in his hand, as if he were about to roll some dice. Then he would throw the coins to the ground, count them, and then start the process again.

For all the crazies I see at White Plains, I’ve been told that the real crazies hang out on the trains to Wassaic. Apparently a man felt it necessary to use the train to take a patio bar set somewhere. And not in a box or anything like that. In pieces. When the train doors opened he brought one piece in, then went back out to pick up another piece, and then another. And during the winter, another passenger on the Wassaic train decided to to transport a snowblower. A gas reeking snowblower. Oh the intriguing people you see on trains…

Just as a last note, I know I mentioned once before seeing a lady that carried a clipboard, and I speculated as to what the clipboard was for, and what she was making notes of. Now I am not sure if this particular woman was in fact making notes for Metro North, but I noticed a young man on my train, every single day, carrying a clipboard and walking through the train cars making notes. After watching this for quite a while, I asked… apparently there are people with clipboards that make notes about train car temperatures or things like that. I figured I’d write that since I actually saw that some people found the blog by typing into a search engine mta what do clipboards people do. Apparently other people have typed in why do pigeons scream in the morning and ride the train sex, but I have nothing to say about that.

I believe this is the the third week I’ve been taking a new train to work in the morning. I sort of got tired taking the train that came down from Wassaic… Golden’s Bridge was the last stop before White Plains, so there were always few seats, and lots of pushing and shoving to be the first to get in the doors of the train. Ten minutes earlier there is another train that is much less busy, and I can always find a seat without any difficulties.

Of course, there are still odd folks, as there are on probably every train. I made a post a week or so back about people drinking beer on the train on their way home… clearly those people are not cool. You can only be cool if you drink beer in the morning on the way TO work! Shoppers at Target of Mount Kisco, if you smell alcohol on a sales associate at around 8am you probably aren’t imagining it!

Today there was an intriguing man making a complete mess all over the train. There was a puddle underneath him, flowing into the aisles. Up against his crotch, he held a half-empty one gallon jug with water inside. It was a very odd way to be holding it. The lid was pointed down towards the floor, which I assume is where the puddle was coming from. If the jug was pointed the opposite way, I totally would have thought he’d be peeing in it. Thankfully I got off the train shortly after.

Yesterday my “lesbian lover” also made an appearance at the train station. She has an office down the hall from me at work, and the extent we speak is pretty much an occasional “good morning” or things of that nature. A few months back the woman turned up at the train station. She must have felt awkward being around hundreds of strangers, because she saw me and must have thought “That girl! I recognize her! Let’s have an awkward conversation, even though we’ve never talked and I really don’t know her… but hey, at least I know her more than all these other strangers!!” Another coworker that I wait with at the train station, didn’t realize she worked at our company as well, and was entirely convinced that she was a lesbian attempting to hit on me. Yesterday was the second time I’ve seen her at the train station. She didn’t see me, perhaps that is a good thing.

Lastly, I went looking for my chapstick in the bottom of my bag and instead of being able to find it, I found some delightful handouts I’ve received in the past few weeks. I recall seeing a bunch of people standing in the train station lobby looking all suspicious one day, and then they gave me this card:

(at least that is better than getting asked by an obnoxious man about fifty million times whether I was a registered member of the Democratic Party, like I did this morning) Oh, and my personal favorite, the “Jesus literature”. Those people are always passing shit out at the train station. Hey, at least I got one in ENGLISH this time!

In other news, Jesus literature does not burn very well. In case you like, wanted to make a fire with it or something. Just putting that out there…

If you buy a monthly ticket to ride Metro North then I am certain you noticed the increase in fare on your July monthly. We all knew it was coming, and I guess I am happy that the increase was not nearly as bad as it was supposed to be. Anyways, I always wonder about people who take the train down from Wassaic to Grand Central. I personally don’t know anyone who does… but there must be at least a few of them. But it is a long and expensive ride…

Before the fare increase:

After the fare increase:

$372 to $412… an increase of $40. Wow…

This timetable is particularly noteworthy as it is one of the last timetables ever printed for the “Upper Harlem Line” to Chatham. Service from Dover Plains to Chatham ended in March 1972.

This timetable was uploaded by usroadman. Clicking it will bring you to the original image, posted on webshots.