SEPTA

It took me an hour to get home from work tonight.

It usually takes about 15-20 minutes. I sat patiently on the train at 2nd street from 6:19 to 6:34pm. I watched two trains pass on the opposite tracks. I heard the conductor, zero times. Finally, I got off the train and took the 6:38pm bus home.

I pay $20.75 every week so that I can get to and from a job that makes me miserable. Handing over that money, knowing that delays will make me late to work, is infuriating. I don't want to give you my money. I could get a bike, but I'm fat and lazy and frankly I'm scared that I'm going to get hit by a cab that would rather leave me for dead than help peel me off the ground. So, I ride Septa. It always seemed like the better choice, now I'm not so sure.

This 'operating on a single track' bullshit is getting old. Take my $20.75 along with the money from the other commuters and fix it already. I see the men in the neon jackets walking around with their hardhats and walkie-talkies. But, I also see people standing on platforms shoulder to shoulder because they've been waiting for a half hour to board a train.

I'm not going to complain about the smell, the cleanliness, the deafening volume on most trains, the rats, the human feces, the dangerous bus drivers, the unsalted platforms after a snowstorm, the broken elevators, the filthy escalators or even the poor attitudes from 97% of the employees. I'm just pissed that I've had to see this, several times over the last few weeks:

Septa, not moving. Why? Couldn't tell you.