Railtrip from Hell

I grew up in Harrisburg, the capital of this great commonwealth, where coincidently my father still lives. Over the week-end I drove to Harrisburg to see my dad and to have my car looked at (the fucking A/C is broken), alas my car won't be fixed for a number of days. So, in order to get back to the great city of Pittsburgh, polis of the western world, I took the train.

Now, I'm a big fan of rail travel and living along Amtrak's northeast corridor, before I moved to Pittsburgh, I enjoyed frequent and well-maintained train service. But, go a little bit west and expectations deteriorate precipitously. There is but one train daily that runs from Philly to Pittsburgh (the Harrisburg-Pittsburgh leg takes 5 1/2 hours, it's only 3ish hours by car) and the trains are a little bit ghetto. But, I'm tough - I can handle frayed seating, stained carpets and a sub-standard cafe car. The breaking point came when we arrived in the slum-town Altoona.

Pre-Altoona I was sitting in a quiet train car enjoying a dense, but interesting book......but then I heard it, the unmistakably shrill sound of an ill-behaved five year-old. I turned around and saw not one, not two, but four children and their two inattentive guardians moving toward the front of the car. And it just so happens that they decided to choose a block of seats right in front of me.

For a moment, as the trained departed, I was hopeful - silly Andrew. They started....screaming, jumping around, playing football, laughing, more screaming, more jumping (this time from seat to seat), smashing food into the floor. The next 2 hours were an absolute misery, I was only able to read about twenty pages, as my concentration was repeatedly broken by small children bumping into me. An absolute misery.

As a society we really need to devote some good public policy analysis to how to best transport ill-behaved children. I'm for the sedate and ship method. I think Fed-Ex could handle it.