Journal ellem's Journal: PLAN A :: Day (Night) One of (the illegal) MTA Strike 2
The LIRR in its bottomless pit of stupidity decided to make a plan. Now these are people who run the exact same trains at the exact same times for some 50-60 years and STILL can't get the 5:41 in on time.... anylou...
So here's the plan:
Only certain people can get in to Penn Station from certain entrances. It's not a horrible plan. It's completely and totally unnecessary. It has no merit and is pretty pointless. Standard fare for the LIRR. They went to a lot of trouble printing pretty colored maps and making a point to put them on every seat. They just never stopped to think that 99% of the people pouring into Penn Station go there everyday. They know where to go. They know what to do. Making them do new things is, well, a bad idea. But OK... it's a plan.
So what happens when the LIRR makes a plan? THEY DON'T FOLLOW IT.
So when they tell the intrepid Ronkonkomins to go to 33rd and 8th they promptly let anyone in anywhere and chaos (not to be confused with Qaos) ensues. So you have very angry people yelling at people pushing shoving curses scuffles and general threats of RUSH THE MOTHERFUCKERS all about.
So I am yelling at some hapless boob and he's yelling back "You're right! We do suck!" and I think, well this is pointless. So I find a Cop. All you Cop bashers eff off.
"Listen, your guys are sending all these people down stairs the wrong way and then they have to come back up and they are getting really mad."
"Yeah."
"Call someone and tell them to stop that."
"Hey, you know what?"
"No what?"
"Go over to the subway entrance they are going to open it in like 2 seconds."
I run back to the hapless boob and say, "The next asshole like me who starts yelling at you, send him over there!" and I point to the subway entrance.
"Thanks!"
Now because I was cool to the Cop I got on the 17:16 to Ronkonkoma, which BTW doesn't exist, and got home in normal time. My commute wasn't a nightmare.
I know there are hardy Ronkonkomins who were there for the 17:22 who are STILL waiting to get on a train.
The LIRR did NOT need a PLAN but they DID NEED to FOLLOW IT.*
*CAPS make you righter
goddamn cops (Score:2)
Seems like no one is sympathetic to the TWU (Score:2)
This would be the time for Pataki to take a page out of the Gipper's book. Announce that anyone not back on the job on Dec 26th is fired and their accrued retirement benefits will be used to pay their fines for striking. Then call up the guard to start operating the trains and buses again. They'll have the week between Christmas and New Years to learn the system, and everything should be working reasonably well by January 2nd.
Of course, faced with the loss of their jobs and the loss of their retirment,