Yo, fuck the L train.

This morning the platform at Lorimer was packed. I could barely get on- the fucking platform. The little electronic signs indicating the current wait time had given up and were just announcing today's date. People were cold, wet from melting snow their hair and coats had collected, and pissed off.

After 4 trains on what I like to call the "useless track" where no one is ever waiting, a Manhattan bound came. People were packed just as tightly on either side of the train walls. The doors opened, some spilled out and others pushed in. This exchange always reminds me of tetris. Limbs, bags, children, all twisting and locking into place to form a solid shape, ready for transport.
•••

I remember when I "discovered" the L train. Instead of transfering to the F and riding all the way up through lower Manhattan I could just hop from the G to the L and make a quick, straight shot to Union Square. I had just effectively cut my morning commute time in half. I felt like I had just found a secret short cut. It went on this way for 3 beautiful months.

But 2008 has been a different story. All last week my trips to work had taken nearly an hour each. On Tuesday I waited 25 minutes for an L train and once it came, bloated and bursting with riders it stayed in the station for another 4 minutes, opening and closing its doors, teasing others to try and jam onboard, then crept to Bedford where it parked again for something like 7 minutes.

Thursday was similar only it was so packed and so behind schedule that it shot straight from Lorimer to Union Sq. Which was ideal for me, but a terrific pain-in-the-ass for those who could not squeeze their way off in time and had to ride past their stops and catch an opposite train back. This morning, a dreary, sludge of a morning, after a 14 minute wait, it simply kicked us all off at 1st ave. It wasn't a "hey we're being held here because of imaginary train traffic" or "there was an emergency stop pulled" it was more like "get off of this train."

And so we did. Hundreds of us funneling out the the stairways and spilling out onto the street streaming in different directions. Luckily I had opted for my big boots over the sandals I was wearing this morning and my 5 avenue walk was a mildly comfortable one. On the up side it gave me some time to devise ways in which to enact precise and calculated revenge on my arch-nemisis.... the L train.