thomryng: (Keep calm citizen)
thomryng ([personal profile] thomryng) wrote2009-11-17 08:06 am
Entry tags:

The Big Wrench

Commemoration of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
On a Sound Transit train, somewhere near Kent

Sound Transit is not having a good week.

Yesterday, my 6:50AM train was canceled due to some sort of mechanical issue apparently involving hydraulics. Fortunately, the 7:20 gets me into work only a few minutes late.

Then, my 5:40PM train arrived at King Street Station almost twenty minutes late, again due to unspecified "mechanical problems at the Tukwila Station".

Once finally in Tacoma, it transpired that the automatic track switches used by the Tacoma Link light rail were not working, forcing the engineer to twice stop the train. She physically left the train, carrying an enormous slab of metal I assume was a lever, and threw the switches manually.

The lever put me in mind of the Big Wrenchâ„¢ found on the engineering deck of every proper Traveller starship.

When finally I arrived back at Pistachio House, having walked up The Hill, I heard on the news that the Seattle Link light rail had suffered an actual derailment earlier in the day.

And that was just yesterday.

This morning, my 6:50AM train was again canceled. This time they didn't bother even giving us an explanation.

On the other hand, the weather has been gloriously stormy. Once the wind gusts get up to 50 miles per hour, one hardly feels the rain.

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