Commutes Redux

See, I shouldn't have opened my metaphorical mouth. Just yesterday I talked about Wednesday's commuting mess caused by the Amtrak holdup. Then I hear this morning there was yet ANOTHER Amtrak holdup, for the same reason, yesterday morning (though I don't seem to recall being late, so I might have missed that as well). Yesterday afternoon we were a half hour late stuck behind freight trains that have been running behind due to all this mess... And now this morning as we're standing out in the freezing rain, reports of delays start to roll in and some people start to take the 991 commuter bus to Shady Grove (but that's a long haul on the Metro all the way downtown and back up again to Silver Spring); however, we hear the train whistle and many of us wait for the train. Only 15 minutes behind, no big deal. Here's the email alert:

Maryland E-mail is back on the net after an extended absence due to computer problems. Our first message however is not good. CSX has both tracks east of Point of Rocks blocked with three freight trains due to earlier problems. One freight train is waiting a relief engine and the other two are moving. We anticipate that trains 870 and 890, the first trains from Brunswick and Frereick [sic] will be between 75 and 90 minutes late. Delays should be less significant as the morning passes but we cannot predict delays to individual trains. The status of trains can be followed at www.marctracker.com.

WMATA will be honoring MARC tickets on the Red Line.

550am

Yeah. And we don't get the word about that until we're already on the train. Every single train on the Brunswick line was stopped. So I ended up 45 mins late, not as bad as the early ones (man, I'd be pissed to all get-out if I got up early enough to catch that first train, and then ended up getting in the same time as if I'd taken a later train).

I still cannot regret taking public transportation. Most days there are no worries and I have a smooth ride to catch up on my sleep. But just lately, seems to be more problems than usual... Maybe we'll catch a break before the summer starts, and the heat causes more delays (trains can only go 30mph on the tracks when the heat gets high enough to cause problems with the metal, and sometimes there has to be inspectors going along the line as well).