My 112th Septa story

I lost it today, really, I lost it.

I got on the 7:40 train (the R3 west trenton) this morning and sat in my normal seating area, to the front and perferably a two seater, only to discover that the air conditioning isn't working. This is bad. Not only is it bad but its the third time this week this has happened to me. One of the other times I got to move to a different train and did not have to sit in the sweltering 98 degree box car for long. This time I was stuck. The cool train was already full from the stops before me. "Okay, I can do this, I mean, everyone else on the train is in the same position as me and they are going to sit in their seats and bear it, so why shouldn't I"? That's what I thought at first, but then I started listening to everyone complaining to each other. All the older ladies took deep sighs. Thats what white people do, they mumble under their breaths about something but take it none the less. Then some larger gentleman sits next to me and the sun was right on the side of my face and sweat was running down my back making my dress shirt stick to the back of the cheap viynle seat and getting it all wrinkly when I had just gave it a second iron this morning because it was a little wrinkly this morning and the guy next to me defenitily smelled bad. AHHHH!

Now I am not going to just like freak out and stand up and start waving my hands around, screaming, just because I can't control myself. I gathered myself and decided what I would do is not pay my train fare. This seemed just, I mean their are times when you don't have to pay for something because you are not satisfied by its performance. In fact there are lots of time. If I were to rent a car for the day and the A.C. did not work, I would ask for a refund. I assume that my purchase should fit a resonable standard of acceptablity. I would not pay! damn it!

So after the train is full of people and we are express bound to center city the ticket collector lady, an obese African American with dreads and a known attitude asked me for my ticket and I say, "NO, I am not paying for this ride today. I am sick of your terrible service and I will not pay." She gives me that quick head turn and squints her eyes and says, "you will pay or I'm going to have the cops waiting for you at your stop, so you better pay."

World, I hung strong. Everyone was staring at me, no one cheered. My act of rebellion against SEPTA drew no followers. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Well I guess I'll get arrested at Suburban Station." She snorted and walked away and I went by to reading my Dostoevsky. I knew everyone was looking at me, but I didn't care...good ridence to tradors and cowards. She comes back about 2 minutes later and obviously counts my seat, singling me out and I start thinking, "man...the cops are going to bust in here and drag me out of this train car because I didn't pay the $6. I'm going to get arrested and have to take a sick day. I didn't even need to pay, I own a trail pass that pays my fair daily, that I kept tucked away in my book.

That would have been a really good story, but the cops did not show. She ends up getting the engineer of the train to come yell at me, and I yelled right back.

"Why won't you pay"

"Because you have terrible service and this is the third time this week the stupid train didn't work and one time their was one car to few and the isles were filled with old ladies about to pass out because YOU DON'T CARE.

He defends himself by saying, "things break down". And me...

"They always break down because there is no one who cares enough to fix it right because your union protected." (or something like that anti-union, which probably did not come off so well.

He repeats "Things break".

"If my company ran their business like this we would have been shut down years ago!"

He just stood their hovering over top of me, not saying anything else. I think I had stumped him but he would not go away, so I flipped through the pages of "The Brothers Karamazov" and flashed my pass. Yeah Mr. Engineer, what do you think about THAT. I already paid for my trip, I just threw a fit out of priniple.

Septa should not be union controlled. Their workers do not care what happens to the people on board because their is no fear of repremand because they are protected by the union. As long as they don't blantently offend someone, they keep their job, and a train that gets all the passengers to their destinations safely, but not comfortably, is considered acceptable. They know I have to use them because my other option is driving in crazy traffic, and I should not have to turn down PUBLIC transportion, that is not cheap, for something that could be avoidable. My fairs even just went up recently, but service did not improve. It never does. I had to stand up to them even though I know this will get nowhere. The A.C. may work tomorrow, or it may not, but I'm staying cool as a cucumber.