Trains

Perhaps because I began my working life with daily train commutes up to London, I've always enjoyed this form of transit.  It's not easy in S.California to spend much time on trains as they don't seem to go anywhere you want.  But the other day in pursuit of an assignment, I took the Blue Line from Long Beach to downtown  L.A.  I've done it once before and it's quite an easy run.

Blue Line train at Wardlow Station

We were going along quite merrily and everyone was settled in, when horror of horrors an anouncement was made (in both English and Spanish) that we were to vacate the train and journey on in buses - there was construction on the line.  Now I have to admit that I hate buses.  They go in weird directions and keep turning away from where I want to end up.  I confess that in 28 years out here, I have never once traveled on one.  But there was little choice on this occasion as the train had stopped in an "undesirable" area of the city, and I wasn't going to walk!

It was a thoroughly nasty business.  There was a complete trainload crammed into a bus - even though it was one of those odd contraptions that had a back compartment with a bellows connecting the two parts.  An experience I shall not want to repeat - at least for another 28 years.  That would make me... Oh, never mind!