No Car. No Problem. (Got to work in 100 minutes)

I made it to work by 8:35 using a weird combo of trans-options. I took the T's No. 62 Summerfields Express to downtown Fort Worth, and rode the Trinity Railway Express to Hurst-Bell Station. From there, the Star-Telegram was a four-mile, 30-minute bike ride (mostly uphill, but not terrible). The bike rack on the bus was awesomely easy to use. Normally I expect the TRE to be bike-friendly, with its easy-to-step-on, double-deck Bombardier railcars. But the TRE also still keeps in service a small number of old-fashioned, single-deck Budd Rail Diesel Cars (the kind with no bathrooms), and as luck would have it the TRE train I needed to catch was running these Budds. I'm here to tell you it was a real booger to get a bike up those steep, narrow steps. And then, once inside the self-propelled silvery cars, there was very little room to stow a bike. I ended up taking space in the wheelchair area, which thankfully no one in a wheelchair needed at the moment. Oh, and I made one of the TRE employees mad when I opened the door latch to step off the train. (Actually, I got the sense he was having a bad day anyway.) On the Budd cars, passengers are supposed to wait for the help to take care of such matters, whereas the Bombardier doors open automatically ...

Railfans like the nostalgia of riding in the old-fashioned Budd RDCs ... and they are pretty ...

... but when I'm on a bike GIVE ME THE BOMBARDIERS! Gaudy Texas flag paint job, and all!

Comments

[Jamie]

Gordon, next time you end up on one of the "silver bullets", you might try walking your bike up the wheelchair ramps and rolling it into the east end of the train. I've seen several people do this from time to time. Also, the TRE employees can get into serious trouble for allowing passengrs to manually operate the doors (I assume it was the one of the external doors?). It's a safety/liability issue. You could lose a finger if your not careful and (if the train is still moving) possibly impale yourself on some of the railroad stuff along the tracks if you were to fall out.
Jamie

[Gordon Dickson]

Jamie: The wheelchair ramp is a good idea. I'll try that. As for the TRE door: the guy made those safety points clear. I realize it was the wrong thing to do. I guess I did it because I'm used to hustling when I ride transit and not waiting around for doors to open. On a subway in D.C. or N.Y., if you hesitate the doors will close and the train will take off. I know that's not the way things work here, but I always have this urge to jump off as soon as the train gets to the platform. My bad.