Well, I guess the commute could have been worse, after all

I caught the 6:05pm express train home. Shortly after coming out of the tunnel that goes under the East River to get us to Long Island, there was a *pop* sound, an electrical flash I could see outside the train, a car or two further down, and then the train drifted to a stop.

After a few minutes, the conductor announced that it was a problem with the tracks that was being worked on remotely and that the train was fine. Shortly after that, the power came back on (the lights and a/c having cut out, too), and we were on our way. A little while later, we had some more problems (or so it seemed--there was no announcement this time). When we got to Jamaica, they slowly rolled us through, as someone there looked at the underside of the train.

With that, they brought us to a stop and announced that we had to back into Jamaica, as they were wrong earlier--our train was broken. So we backed in and had to leave the train.

A short time later, another train arrived. This train already was pretty full, but it was going our way, so we all crowded in. I've seen packed trains, but this was ridiculous. Two rush hour trains worth of passengers in one train. It was just lovely.

I figured it couldn't get worse. Then I got to the station and realized there was a way it could have been worse. Imagine being the owner of this Jeep and getting off the train to find it looking like this...



Okay, at least my SUV wasn't burned to a crisp. That puts things in perspective!