Public Transit Stories

[Silly Wizard]

So I'm sure there are a good deal of people who use a bus system. Whether it's a Greyhound, school bus, or even other forms of public transportation (train, tram, subway, etc), there's a lot of strange stories that evolve out of your experiences with them.


I just got done waiting at the bus stop for about an hour, since I missed it by a few minutes. I stood at the bus stop with three others- a couple who just finished hiking, and an old guy with a huuuge beard.

They started talking about hiking and the mountains nearby. While I was there, I learned how to light a cigarette with a flashlight (it was pretty cool) and heard them talking about bears. They were like, "you don't need to outrun the bear, just each other." The old guy started laughing, then began talking 'like a bear'. He was talking in a pirate accent.

Old people are awesome

[KuReshtin]

They were like, "you don't need to outrun the bear, just each other."

This is very true no matter what wild animal is chasing you. Just outrun your mate, and you should be fine.

[Silly Wizard]

This is very true no matter what wild animal is chasing you. Just outrun your mate, and you should be fine.

It kinda sucks for your friend, though

[Jokasti]

It kinda sucks for your friend, though

Not if he's faster

[Mathis]

I got a story for you.

Back in 1991 I was taking the red line southbound in New York. I don't usually use public transport as I can easily bike my way home to my apartment, but it had been one of those days and I felt like being lazy. I remember it perfectly though, it was pretty crowded for the late hour but I had been lucky enough to catch a seated spot. Everything seemed to be ok until the train suddenly jerked up in speed and sped past a station. People were getting kind of worried as the train refused to stop and just continued to increase in speed.

This is where I start to get worried myself, you know that feeling when you just know something bad might happen because this just ain't safe? Well, this was just like that. People were panicking and screaming now when someone decided to pull the emergency breaks. This is when the light's go out and leave us in the pitch black.

So there I am, in the darkness a late New York night with panicking people around me. Someone randomly pulls out a flashlight, and in a few flashes of light we can all spot several pairs of red eyes and chitinous, Chtulhu like monsters slaughtering their way through the other passengers!

And this is where I stop writing because I realize it's a bad joke to put something from a play-by-post horror game off as a real life Public Transit story. But yeah, roleplay, it's kinda like that.

[Dirk Anger]

While I was there, I learned how to light a cigarette with a flashlight (it was pretty cool)

This is interesting to me. How would you do that?

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

I got a story for you.

Back in 1991 I was taking the red line southbound in New York. I don't usually use public transport as I can easily bike my way home to my apartment, but it had been one of those days and I felt like being lazy. I remember it perfectly though, it was pretty crowded for the late hour but I had been lucky enough to catch a seated spot. Everything seemed to be ok until the train suddenly jerked up in speed and sped past a station. People were getting kind of worried as the train refused to stop and just continued to increase in speed.

This is where I start to get worried myself, you know that feeling when you just know something bad might happen because this just ain't safe? Well, this was just like that. People were panicking and screaming now when someone decided to pull the emergency breaks. This is when the light's go out and leave us in the pitch black.

So there I am, in the darkness a late New York night with panicking people around me. Someone randomly pulls out a flashlight, and in a few flashes of light we can all spot several pairs of red eyes and chitinous, Chtulhu like monsters slaughtering their way through the other passengers!

And this is where I stop writing because I realize it's a bad joke to put something from a play-by-post horror game off as a real life Public Transit story. But yeah, roleplay, it's kinda like that.

You made it to the lights going out before I clocked it, though I'd had my suspicions due to the tone with which you told the story. I am, after all, a sufficiently observant English student. :smallamused: Well done.

Anyway, I have a public transport story of my own. One day I caught the bus back from town, only to find it empty aside from the bus driver, when I was around the age of twelve. The bus driver then drove like a madman, swerving about the roads with the bus doors wide open, cackling like a supervillain. I clung on to whatever I had bought from town with one hand and the pole with the other in my efforts not to get thrown across the bus, and eventually decided enough was enough, and leapt out of the open door of the bus as it rounded a corner. Physically I was fine, though I could have ended worse off had I stayed on board, but I can still hear that bus driver's maniacal laugh whenever I think about it. :smalleek:

[Silly Wizard]

This is interesting to me. How would you do that?

In the front part where the light bulb is, you take out the conical metal thing that focuses the light and put it up to the sun with the cigarette under it to where the hole is and it should light within like thirty seconds. It requires a sunny day, though.

[WarBrute]

This is less of a single story and more of a semi daily event.

Evey morning I take the city bus to my school. Occasionally the bus is driven by a man named Ivan. He has a habit of yelling at other drivers, honking excessively, standing to stretch at every red light and whistling cheery Christmas songs while he drives.

[Thajocoth]

I've got a few...

Lived in Queens for a year. Took the subway every day to & from work.

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One time I was running to catch the subway as it was closing. I got half my leg in the door. The doors did not open from not getting closed as I expected them to. I could not force the doors open. It was right at the knee, so I couldn't pull my leg out. Then the subway car started moving. I hoped with it twice, and had plenty of time before the wall. (I was only a couple doors from as far from the coming wall as I could be.) I was about ready to try smashing the window so I can hold myself against the door (the doors are inset a little, there would be room, and, while still risky, it's a slightly better than smashing into the wall.) However, after those two hops, the subway stopped again, the door opened, I lept in, and then they shut and started going. I guess the conductor noticed...

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Another time, I was listening to music on my headphones with my mp3 player. There was a drunk woman who I was probably homeless. She decided she liked me. She was trying to get my attention, telling me how much I wanted her, and I was pretending my music was too loud for me to notice. She kicked me at some point... I took a few steps back to the next pole down and resumed ignoring her. A few stops later she got off.

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There was this artist drawing people for tips. I watched to see how much other people were giving him, just in case he drew me, but really, I hoped he didn't. I still have the picture.

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There was this guy who thought I was watching him. This was because he was directly across from me, so we were facing one another, and I was looking at the ads above him. He assumed I was scared he was going to rob me because he's black. That was an awkward conversation...

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There was this woman listening to music, with her eyes closed, dancing. I was sitting, with my head against the side because I was resting somewhat (not sleeping. I can't sleep in a moving vehicle.) When her stop was next, she walked over to the door and continued dancing, with her pelvis about an inch away from my face, basically thrusting at me. I'm quite certain she was never aware of this fact.

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One time, it rained real hard while I was at work. I also stayed pretty late, as there was a deadline coming up. We don't get overtime, but we need to make our deadlines. You'd think that a downpour would be no big deal... Well, all but one line from Manhattan into Queens was down. We were all assured that on the other side of the divide, the lines were still all running. I walked to the card swiper, swiped, stepped through, and was no longer walking. I was more a particle in a sea. I could only move with the mass, not as an individual. After I was pressed into the subway car, which became just as packed, the speakers for the subway were saying not only to stand clear of the doors, but that another car is right behind them ready to pull in and take the next group into Queens. Almost all of us were getting off at the same stop... This once stop that branches to all the other lines in Queens.

When we got there... The place was complete chaos... And there was much reason for the confusion. The main lines were NOT running on the Queens side. So I stepped out of the station. I went across the street, and got myself a two scoop sundae from Baskin Robbins. I sat, ate it, and relaxed. Then I returned to the station. Same state... But I was not part of the panic. I asked a guy that worked there what to do, and he said to talk to somebody else, in some info booth in a corner of the station.

So I walked over to there. There was no one over this way, as the panic was all people failing their attempts to transfer, and this was an exit with an info booth on the other side. So I ask the person, and I get good info. I get back on the cramped car everyone else is getting off of, and take it to the end of the line. I can take a smaller line from there back to a stop near my apartment. This was all correct, and I got home fine.

-----

I saw someone else with a DS on the subway home. "New Mario?", I ask, as I take out my DS and pop in the game. We play it until the end of the line, forcing me to transfer to the reverse train for a few stops.

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These next ones aren't subway. They're recent... Car, train, airtrain (a sort of monorail for getting around inside the airport and getting to/from certain train stations and that airport), and airplane. These happened on the 8th and the 14th. The first was New York to San Francisco, and the second was the reverse.

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To get there:

My mom decides that I only need to reach the airport 1 hour ahead of time, not 2, as JetBlue suggests. The plan is: She drives me to the Ronkonkoma train station, I transfer at Jamaica an hour later for the AirTrain to JFK Airport.

My cousin's babysitter is sick, so my mom's got my cousins with her. (The little one doesn't travel well.) The train I was going to take was canceled because the previous one had hid a car. (If I had not waited that extra hour, I would've been on the train that hit a car, and would've been stuck there for hours, missing my flight completely.)

So, she drives us to the Patchogue station, which should get to Jamaica shortly after the Ronkonkoma line's train would've, but there are delays because of the hit car.

So she drives me to the airport. I get there with less than an hour to spare.

NO lines. 30 seconds later, I'm waiting at the gate for my flight to board. We rushed and worried for nothing.

---

To get home:

The hotel arranges for a shuttle to bring me to the airport at 11:00. At 11:05, they call and ask why it's late, and it shows up by 11:06. Not too bad, yet.

I get to the airport and the signage is a bit confusing, but I figure out that the 3 lines crossing one another are: self-service boarding pass pickup, bag check if you already have your boarding pass, and a full service line that takes care of both for you. I'm on the full service line. It moves at about 1/4 the speed of either of the other lines, but I get my stuff taken care of, and I've got 5 minutes before my flight starts boarding (which happens 1/2 hour before takeoff).

The security area is at max capacity for how many people can be waiting on line to pass through. So I get to the gate at about the time the plane would be leaving if it wasn't delayed 45 minutes.

We were supposed to land at 9:32. We landed at 10:44. The trains from Jamaica are at X:38, so this meant taking the 11:38 instead of the 10:38. After waiting a 1/2 hour for my bag, I rush to the AirTrain which has no decent signage, so I catch the first one that shows up, going 1 stop in the wrong direction. Then I get off & switch tracks, going 1 stop in the right direction, but on the wrong line, so I get off again and catch the next one in the right direction on the right line.

Then my MetroCard's expired, so I need a new one to get out at Jamaica, and I've just missed the 11:38pm train to Ronkonkoma. There's a train that goes to Port Jefferson, which is actually closer than Ronkonkoma, but takes a lot longer, so it'll get there at the same time as the next train to Ronkonkoma will get to Ronkonkoma, but due to track-work, some of the Port Jeff line is replaced by a bus.

So I get on the Port Jeff train to find a conductor to ask if the bus will introduce delays, and the doors shut before I can find one. The answer: yes. However, I can change at Hicksville for the Ronkonkoma train, which is also the last stop on the train before it switches to buses.

So I get off there, carry the giant suitcase full of a week's clothing and a convention's swag down a flight of stairs and up another flight of stairs (the only way to switch platforms), and wait the half hour for the train, during which I find out that other people waiting for the Ronkonkoma train think it's coming at 1:20, not 12:59, like I had been told. Luckily they were wrong, and I got home at around 2:15am.

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EDIT: This post is long enough that, if someone else posted it, I'd think "tl;dr" and skip it. But really, it's several smaller posts compiled into one. Just saying...

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I have actually never used a public transit system. Then again, that's probably cuz of living out where the bears are for most of my life.

Btw, bear comes at you, ignore what they say, climb a tree. They may can climb to but your average human is much faster and at home amongst branches and you can kick it down.

[Lord Loss]

So, I get out of my train. The train leaves, and me and my friends wait for it to leave so we can cross the track. It does so, and we cross. Now, before being able to go anywhere (excluding some industrial district), you need to cross a second track. However, there's a freight train in the way and it's going, very very slowly. Annoyed, we patiently wait for the train to pass, which usually takes minutes. After a few, however, the train stops.

We wait.

Now a few minutes later, the train starts up again, this time going in the opposite direction. We wait , and wait, but then it stops. A few minutes later, it starts going in the other direction. Puzzled, frustrated annoyed, we watch helplessly as the process repeats itself over and over and over again.l

Finally, the train picks up speed. It's finally leaving. We can go home now! Oh, wait, no we can't. It's stopped again. We'll have to wait some more. After a while more of back and forth, back and forth. It stops for a while. Three boys leap over the section between the train and go home, risking their lives.

After an hour, a group of people get on a train to the next stop, from which they will go home. Finally, the train approaches. We can see the third-to-last cart. Everyone rushes around the train (some of us narrowly avoiding a Via-Train on the other line) and make our way home. It's over.

[thubby]

on a flight back from florida, we spend an extra 3 hours in the terminal (debris on the runway our plane was coming from), 1 on the tarmac (fueling mixup), and 1 1/2 in the air (severe storm).
and i was stopped twice by security both coming and going, because i use an inhaler :smallfurious:

[Eldan]

Okay, so, the local trains here have special compartments where people are asked to be silent. They have stickers on each window, saying "no talking, no cell phones, no music" in nice stickers. People usually use them to sleep, and usually there's one person per compartment ignoring it.

However, this one really goes a little further:
Two old women come in, both quite a little past retirement age, both talking loudly, in high-pitched voices, while all around them everyone is trying to sleep, since it's 6:30AM. They sit down. One of them takes a small pocket knife, a swiss army knife, if I remember correctly, and uses it to pry the sticker off the window, all the while talking. She throws the sticker in the trash can.
A young man walks over to them, all friendly and smiling, asks them to please keep it down, people are sleeping and this is a silent compartment.
One of the old ladies, the one with the knife looks up and says: "Young man, if this was a silence compartment, there would be a sticker on this window. I'm not stupid just because I'm old: there's no sticker, ergo this is no silence compartment. Good day."

The young man gave up, baffled.

[Mathis]

Okay, so, the local trains here have special compartments where people are asked to be silent. They have stickers on each window, saying "no talking, no cell phones, no music" in nice stickers. People usually use them to sleep, and usually there's one person per compartment ignoring it.

However, this one really goes a little further:
Two old women come in, both quite a little past retirement age, both talking loudly, in high-pitched voices, while all around them everyone is trying to sleep, since it's 6:30AM. They sit down. One of them takes a small pocket knife, a swiss army knife, if I remember correctly, and uses it to pry the sticker off the window, all the while talking. She throws the sticker in the trash can.
A young man walks over to them, all friendly and smiling, asks them to please keep it down, people are sleeping and this is a silent compartment.
One of the old ladies, the one with the knife looks up and says: "Young man, if this was a silence compartment, there would be a sticker on this window. I'm not stupid just because I'm old: there's no sticker, ergo this is no silence compartment. Good day."

The young man gave up, baffled.

Old people... I cant wait to become one!

[Thajocoth]

Age isn't an excuse for anything. That's vandalism and disruption. It should be treated the same as if they were 20 and did that.

[RandomNPC]

I have actually never used a public transit system. Then again, that's probably cuz of living out where the bears are for most of my life.

Btw, bear comes at you, ignore what they say, climb a tree. They may can climb to but your average human is much faster and at home amongst branches and you can kick it down.

Untill the bears get big enough and the trees small enough that the bears just knock down the trees and eat you.

On a transit note, I was the second to last class to go to Washington DC, someone threw up in our subway car. thats all i've got.

[Yarram]

I did something a little creepy the other day, just for fun.
Walking through the station, a pair of boys were talking about existentialism, and about how they'd considered how they were the only real human beings while everyone else were just figments of their imagination.
I turned around and said, "No, you really are the only real people. How else can you justify a random stranger joining in your conversation?"

They sorta fell silent after that. :smallbiggrin:

[Inhuman Bot]

I did something a little creepy the other day, just for fun.
Walking through the station, a pair of boys were talking about existentialism, and about how they'd considered how they were the only real human beings while everyone else were just figments of their imagination.
I turned around and said, "No, you really are the only real people. How else can you justify a random stranger joining in your conversation?"

They sorta fell silent after that. :smallbiggrin:

.....
:smallamused:

[Eurus]

Age isn't an excuse for anything. That's vandalism and disruption. It should be treated the same as if they were 20 and did that.

Part of me agrees with you, but part of me can't help but think that the sheer gall of those women is kind of awesome. I imagine the first part would win out quickly if it was me being woken up at 6:30, though.

[Shas aia Toriia]

I can not believe anybody would do that.
Especially somebody like that who should know better.

[Lycan 01]

I did something a little creepy the other day, just for fun.
Walking through the station, a pair of boys were talking about existentialism, and about how they'd considered how they were the only real human beings while everyone else were just figments of their imagination.
I turned around and said, "No, you really are the only real people. How else can you justify a random stranger joining in your conversation?"

They sorta fell silent after that. :smallbiggrin:

I applaud your use of wit, comedic timing, and thinking on your feet, good sir. :smallcool:

[Ashtar]

I read books on the trains in Switzerland. When it gets to too outrageous and comedic passages, it can happy that I laugh out loud (not too loud), or at least giggle slightly. Usually that is sufficient to confuse anyone who is sitting next to me and they ask me to explain what's so funny. And that's hard... when you are reading Warhammer 40k fiction or Zombie stories or ...

[Concrete]

While on the subject of reading.

I sit on the morning bus on my way to school, and I see a couple og young guy (10-12) One of them, a little fat kid sits in front of the others, reading what I identify as Lord of The Rings, while the two behind him snicker, taunt and occasionally flick him over the head.
Then, one leans forward, and the fat little bugger turns, smacks him over the head with his book, and resume reading, as the ******* sits back with a dazed look on his face, and his friend suddenly looks awfully tiny... :D

Damn, I have never felt a stronger urge to high-five a fifth-grader...

[Thiel]

While on the subject of reading.

I sit on the morning bus on my way to school, and I see a couple og young guy (10-12) One of them, a little fat kid sits in front of the others, reading what I identify as Lord of The Rings, while the two behind him snicker, taunt and occasionally flick him over the head.
Then, one leans forward, and the fat little bugger turns, smacks him over the head with his book, and resume reading, as the ******* sits back with a dazed look on his face, and his friend suddenly looks awfully tiny... :D

Damn, I have never felt a stronger urge to high-five a fifth-grader...

A thick hardback might not be the trendiest form of entertainment, but in a pinch it makes a nice cudgel.

Anyway, transit story time:
Last Christmas, I flew to Malta, and being the poor student that I am, I flew with Ryan Air. Now, as some of the air nuts out there may know, there's no direct flight between Denmark and Malta, so I had to go via England. Okay, no problem.
My flight was scheduled to take off at 08:30, so I got up at 05:30 since the airport is about 100 km from were I live. I arrived at the airport 07:45, plenty of time to dump my luggage and go through security. So far so good. At 08:00 we started boarding, but unfortunately we couldn't enter the plane since someone on the previous flight had puked his guts out in a fairly dramatic manner. (As in ambulances and stuff) The airport personnel, being the nice people that they are, only told us this after we'd left the terminal. So we had to stand there in a nice line in the freezing cold during the coldest winter in 16 years. Anyway, half an hour later we got on the plane.
The flight it self went well enough, we had a tail wind, so we managed to catch up on some of the time we'd lost.
But when we landed in Stansted, we was confronted with utter chaos.
I don't know why, but only three of the immigration counters were manned, creating a massive line. Luckily for me, my passport is compatible with those fancy automatic passport checking machines, so I didn't have to wait like everyone else. Unfortunately, in order to get to them I had to cross the long line of people waiting at immigration. I think there was about 50m between me and the machines, and it took about 15 minutes to get there.
At last! I was through, now I just had to find my luggage, buy a coach ticket to Gatwick and find my way to the loading dock.
I walked up to the carousel, waited another 10 minutes for it to start, and lo and behold 15minutes later, my bag hadn't arrived yet! So I walked over to the info stand, where I joined the line of disgruntled passengers. Then, out of the corner of my eye I spotted my bag on a carousel. And not just any carousel, but the one with luggage from Turkey!
Never mind, I finally had my luggage and I was lucky enough to meet a nice old lady who knew where the ticket stand were. So I got my ticket and settled in to wait for another half hour. Half an hour later, no bus in sight. 45min later, the same. By now I was starting to get nervous, I had a plane to catch after all, the next one wouldn't be before the day after. Finally, half an hour late, the bus arrived. Anyway, I got on the bus, the driver explained the safety procedures (First time I've ever had one on a bus.) and off we were.
The drive was uneventful, I got to see about a gazillion small towns that all looked exactly the same, and more British architecture than I could ever want.
And hour later I arrived at Gatwick. By then, there was about 10 minutes till check-in closed, and the desk was in the far end of the building. Never have I run so fast with so much gear (A month worth of sailing equipment is heavy) and I reached the desk just in time to check in as the last passenger.
From there it was on to the ridiculously paranoid security. I didn't quite have to strip, but it was close. (Note: metal zippers are a bad idea in airports)
From there, I had just enough time to visit the toilet before they started boarding. This time, there was no delays, but when I got on the plaen I learned, to my grief, that there were no less than 7 infants on board, plus an undetermined number of toddlers. And as you know, if one baby starts to cry, they all do. The flight may only have lasted just shy of 3½ hours, it felt a lot longer. So, at 22:30 I finally left the airport on Malta.

The return trip, a month later, were far less eventful with the one exception that the plane ran out of fuel as it was winding up for take-off. Which was rather unfortunate, since we where already on the runway. Apparently, the pilot had forgotten to start the pump that transfer fuel from the wing tanks to the ready tanks. At least, that's what they said over the intercom.

Wow. That's one .... of a long thread there.