Day On My Feet

Possibly I'll have time to write more later, but I'm too tired and footsore now to do so. We went in to Chicago on the 10:20 (a train adventure that I will describe eventually) and spent the day at the Field Museum (not long enough; needs another trip). Then, thanks to a bit of miscalculation, we ended up missing the 6:30 train and having to kill more than two hours waiting for the 8:40. Anyway, we made it back eventually, but tomorrow is a work day, so more descriptions must wait.

Edit, 16:00: Linked to the story of my railroad adventure.

How I Saved the Day for 100 Metra Passengers

Yesterday morning, Cheryl and I went over to the Metra (commuter rail) station at Route 59 (Aurora/Naperville), intending to take the train into the city, since we already had weekend passes. (A great bargain at only $5.)

( Metra's Poor Communication Almost Strands Passengers )

I am unimpressed with Metra's communication here. Unless that was an emergency repair -- which it may have been; the evidence supports a broken rail -- they should have done a better job of letting passengers know they needed to use the "wrong" platform. Audible announcements in addition to the scrolling message board should have been made, if they can do so. They should not have depended on a random railfan from California to spot that something was amiss and give those people who would listen directions to catch their train.

In many cases, most of Caltrain's announcements and scrolling message boards have been not terribly useful, but I think in a similar situation, we would have heard numerous announcements about the disruption. At least I hope we would have done so.

(See, trinsf? I can write good things about Caltrain!)