by Shapley » Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:08 pm
We took the train from Poplar Bluff, Missouri to San Antonio, Texas, and back, once. It was about four hours late getting to Poplar Bluff, which meant we were left standing on the platform from about midnight until about four in the morning, waiting for the train. Fortunately, there were quite a few people waiting for that train, as I don't think I'd have wanted to wait there alone. The station itself was unmanned. Someone came and unlocked the restrooms about a half-hour before the train was supposed to arrive, then the left. No one was there but us wanna-be passengers.
Once the train arrived, it continued to get further and further behind schedule. We were, at one point, nearly nine hours behind schedule. We had to wait on a siding near the Arkansas-Texas border for several hours so a slow-moving freight train could pass.
Once we passed Dallas, we were able to make up some lost time. We finally arrived in San Antonio about six and a half hours later. That was normal, we were told.
The return trip was not so bad - only about four hours late.
We made the trip from Carbondale, Illinois to Chicago to attend a wedding recently, and it was pretty well on time. They run three trains a day on that route. Some family members took the St. Louis-Chicago train, and I believe they were an hour or so late arriving.
Perhaps Mr. Obama considers himself a Mussolini. He thinks he can make the trains run on time. He'd better do that with the trains we've got, before he drops billions more into a new set of slow high-speed trains.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
