Venting about the MARC (Rockville, Barnesville: home, transfer to, buying)

[tw71]

This is probably a pointless complaint (especially to put up here, vs. a letter to the appropriate people in charge of the service). But just felt like venting, and seeing how many others experienced the same thing.

I take the MARC in to Rockville almost every day for work and back home again at night. Generally, they're pretty reliable and on time (minus the rare train breakdown). In the mornings, I try to arrive at the station at least 10 minutes before the train is scheduled to leave, and that's usually fine. But once in a while, things happen. Like this morning, I went outside to find my Jeep was all frosted over so I couldn't see out of the windows. I couldn't find my ice scraper and the defroster wasn't clearing it up quickly enough. So I gave up and took the other car that was in the garage. By the time I got to the station and found a parking space (at the far end of the lot, no less) -- I only had about 1 minute before the train was scheduled to leave.

I ran as fast as I could to the platform (and noticed another person behind me doing the same thing). The conductor started yelling at us to hurry up, that we were "making everybody on the train late!", etc. etc.

I've witnessed the same behavior when the train was at other smaller stops like Dickerson or Barnesville too -- including a woman who got chewed out for making the train wait for her. She said she had to use the restroom and that's why she was a little slow getting to the platform, but they didn't care. And several weeks ago in Rockville, a woman was there in the evening, breaking down crying, because Amtrack apparently pulled away while she was on her way towards the platform with several suitcases and bags. She said the conductor clearly saw her and signaled for them to leave anyway! (I didn't catch her whole story but apparently she used the last of her money buying the ticket for the train she missed and was stranded.)

I get that the trains can't just wait around for people who don't pay attention to the schedules... but is it too much to expect them to courteously wait for the people who are clearly running towards them and TRYING to board?!

And by contrast? Last week, the 6:50PM MARC train leaving Rockville decided to pull in about 5-6 minutes early and didn't wait until the scheduled time. I got off of the red line metro to transfer to it, only to find it had already left -- even though I *should* have been several minutes early to catch it still. So what's with that?!

[Tiger Beer]

I'm mixed. On one hand, it sucks to miss a train by seconds, particularly if you are on the platform. On the other hand, there always seems to be one more person trying to catch it, even after you've waited for others who weren't paying attention.

I think the best course of action is everyone should just be aware of the time, and be there, and board. If you are running behind schedule, you'll have to accept the fact that you might miss it. Generally what happens is people realize they'll be waited for, and they'll make a habit of regularly being that guy the train is always delayed ever so slightly for.

If the train just goes on schedule, as it is supposed to, people who miss it, learn a lesson, and try not to cut it so short next time.