An Irish coleen, Carmel O’Donell , was boarding in our house in Port Chester, and she was employed in Manhattan , traveling to and from work by train.

After she arived home on this Friday afernoon , she had to travel to the airport because she was retuning to Ireland for a vacation with her family, but soon there was a terrible problem because Carmel left her purse on the train, which contained all her money and the airline tickets for her flight that evening. Carmel was devastated.

We called the Station Master at GCT and he identified the train based on the time of departure . The train ( TG!!!) finished the run in the Stamford yard , and we called there with the number provided by the Station Master.

Yes , they had Carmel’s purse which , we presume, was found by a conductor; and hours later , Carmel was happily somewere over the Atlantic Ocean.

All the good people worth knowing are a little bit crazy. I do need to come to Stamford at some point for my tour of the New Haven Line. I’m slightly afraid of getting yelled at by police there, though.

The child tickets are so cheap that I think everybody tries to do it. I was probably like 20, and when I went places with my family they still tried to pass me off as a kid. :P

Haha awesome! I love your announcements. Makes things interesting.

On the announcer at White Plains, it reminded me of riding the train as a kid when the conductors used to walk from car to car announcing the stations, with a heavy booming voice, “Neeeeext stop, Valhalla. Vaaaaalhalla next.” I don’t know whether the cars didn’t have PA systems or whether they just didn’t work, but it sure did ensure conductors knew how to project their voices.

On the crazy old man across from the conductor, those are really cool seats. I found in the back of the train on one trip home that the cab door had been closed so it was only a half cab, leaving those seats accessible. Cool spot to sit and see where you’ve been.

Also on the crazy old man, it can be kind of intimidating crossing between cars like that when the train is moving. I had that happen to me one time on the LIRR when traveling with a 7-year-old. Boarded the last car of a 10-car train to find out that due to track work only the first door of the first car would open at our destination. That’s a long walk with a lot of heavy doors on a moving train, especially when holding someone’s hand between every car.

Tripod – It’s a dog not a cat, but see the movie “Trapped in Paradise”.

I still don’t know how I feel about bus drivers. Usually they’re okay, but then there’s that Green Line Shuttle Bus driver cursing the cops and gridlocking intersections in heavy traffic, plus the crazy guy last year doing at least 45 downtown weaving all over the two lane road in an articulated bus…easily the most terrifying ride I’ve ever had… One sees a huge discrepancy between them and commuter rail conductors in the way of professionalism…