Thursday, June 12, 2008

Good things come out of bad

For the last two years, I have been commuting to work by bike and train- riding to the station, taking my bike on the train, and then riding to work.

Last week, Cal.Tr.ain suddenly changed the type of train on my morning schedule. So now, instead of a train that holds 32+ bicycles, we have one that holds only 16. We bicyclists only learned of this when the train pulled up and the conductor said that none of us would be allowed on because the bike car was already full.

In February, they made the same change to the train that I take home, and at that time I started riding all the way home instead of taking the train.

I tried complaining to Ca.lTr.ain, as I have done before, but they always respond that they can't do anything about it. In reality, I think they want to discourage bikes because we take so long to load and unload that we delay the whole train.

However, since this change, I have begun riding to work, three days a week. Eight miles really isn't that far, and the ride is rather pleasant. Maybe I will finally lose some of the weight that I wanted to. Perhaps this will help decrease my stress too.

***

Yesterday I was reading the tragic story of Liz, who died one day after her baby was born. Life doesn't go as we plan, but we plug on anyway.

3 comments:

Io said...

Go you! I keep thinking it would be good of me to do something like that, but I'm afraid somebody in my ghetto would push me off my bike.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your situation.

They are having some mechanical issues and had to remove a lot of cars from service. Most likely, that's why they are shuffling cars around.

You might want to check out their bike master plan meetings coming up: http://www.caltrain.com/news_2008_06_10_bike_master_plan_comments.html

Although they aren't planning to talk about bike car capacity, I know there are going to be bombarded with bike riders coming to voice their complaints. It should be interesting.

hopeyg said...

How true, life doesn't go according to plan. I keep on having to re-learn that everyday. But in the end, I'm glad it doesn't go according to my plan. It makes things more interesting that way.

Love ya,
Hope