“The
train to Grand Central Station is operating five to ten minutes late,” said the
announcement over a surprisingly clear public address system.
I
knew what that meant.
Not
only would the train be late, it would be extra crowded. Metro North is quite
predictable, unfortunately not because it honors its schedule so
methodically but for quite the opposite reason. It’s consistently inconsistent.
Though
the excuse doesn’t really matter, I asked the conductor of the late,
overcrowded train, what the reason was for today’s transgression, the latest in
a line of setbacks for a train system that finally replaced most of its old
trains with new ones.
“Mechanical failure,” he assured me.
He
saw doubt and incredulity when scanning my face.
“Brakes.
A train in Greenwich had bad brakes," he followed up, as if I had asked another
question.
“Ah,
the all-inclusive mechanical failure,” I mumbled, and went back to reading my
book.
It’s
all lies.
I’ve
been taking this train line for a decade and every time there is a delay, they
say “due to mechanical failure,” but the truth goes beyond that. For once, I’d
like to hear the following scenarios that may have caused a delay:
“The
motorman overslept and screwed up our schedule.”
“The
train was not properly maintained and because of our incompetence, it doesn’t
work today."
“We’re
purposely screwing with the trains today as the union’s way to protest a
proposed new contract from management.”
“These
new trains are overly sensitive to perfect weather and malfunction in the most
inopportune time.”
“Even
though we jack up the fare almost every year, we didn’t budget to actually fix
the broken trains.”
“The
motorman had to run to the bathroom because he ate and drank too much the night
before, flushing rush-hour down the drain.”
“The
train couldn’t leave without the motorman, who was delayed after a quickie with
a passenger.”
Maybe
none of the above are true, but I know it’s not just random bad luck that
there’s mechanical failure paralyzing new trains. Either mechanical failure
strikes so often due to poor maintenance and inspection or because the newly
purchased trains are inherently defective. Neither scenarios pleases
me. But I think half the time it’s not mechanical failure, but rather human
error. The train system runs, not on tracks, but on people. And people mess up
all the time.
It
would be nice to see someone take accountability for the system’s shortcomings. I’d love to see a press conference held where the Mass Transit
Authority admits someone fell asleep at the switch -- perhaps literally -- and at
least humanizes the situation.
But
in the end, all we want is better service. I just hope the fare doesn’t need to
rise again just to achieve mere competence and mediocrity.
Don’t Miss These Recent
Posts
Sell
Books Where They Don’t – Including Funeral Homes, Police Stations & Hair
Salons
What
Can You Do With Old, But Underexposed Content?
How
Does Time Impact Your Book Publicity
The
Role Of Connectivity & Book Publicity
Creativity
& Book Publicity
The
Role Of Money In Book Publicity
What Is
Your Attitude Towards Book Publicity?
How Can Authors Measure Social Media Success?
25 Ways
For Authors To Break Through & Establish A Legacy
Do You Market
Your Books Doggy Style?
Why
Authors – and Publicists & Publishers Need A Therapist
Brian
Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and
not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow
him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when
discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©
2013
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.