Transit Glory

A couple of days after Christmas, my parents and I decided to give my hometown's new light rail line a try. It took a few years of east coast living to tarnish my romantic feelings about train travel, but eventually, the grime, crowds, transit strikes and other big city grumbles killed the thrill. This week's ride on a brand spanking new line brought back a bit of the old feeling. They even gave us free posters just for buying tickets and all or tickets only cost 4.50.

Normally, boarding public transportation with a small pack of teenage boys behind me is not a good sign of a pleasant commute. But these guys turned out to be adorable. They said things like "These seats face each other! Cool!" and "6 more stops to go...5 more stops to go." "Now we can go to the mall whenever we want!"

I don't want to spoil things for the transit authority back home, but they really need to be a little more vigilent about the fare thing. No one checked to see if we had passes when we got on. No one checked when we got off. Even in a town where teenage boys express innocent joy at seats that face each other, the system is just begging to be abused.