On the express train to DC town

Sorry, it's been a busy couple of days this past week or so with a conference in Baltimore, MD to start my week and now I'm playing catch up before all the holidays start tomorrow (Passover, newphew's birthday and Easter - phew!). 

Anyway, an update to the experiment I did a few weeks ago -- I actually timed the "Express train" the P878 to see how much time it actually takes off a one-way trip to DC from Germantown, MD. 

Again, I took a screen shot of my timer and drum roll, please...

It saves approximately 3 minutes and 15 seconds off a normal one-way trip. Again, the first time I did this, we did sit at Union Station for a bit before finally coming to the platform, but still, that means I save 2,762 and 1/2 minutes of my life if I take that train daily; 46 hours or almost 2 days worth. That's a mini-vacation I could be taking! :) But in all seriousness -- I'm happy getting up a bit earlier to get to work a bit earlier and savor a bit more of this wonderful thing called daylight when I get home in the evening. 

Anyway, I have some blog topics living in my head I hope to talk, er, I mean, write about here soon. In the meantime, here's an article I saw a few weeks back that could be fodder for us DC commuters: 

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26083/heres-where-metro-railcars-go-after-they-die/

The weekend is almost here!

An experiment...

So, today I decided randomly to see how long I was on the train, while in transit. I pulled out my trusty iPhone and started the stop watch feature as soon as the P876 on the Brunswick line (my usual train that leaves at 7:11 am) started leaving the Germantown station. 

As we pulled into Union Station, I checked the stopwatch and it was at 41 or so minutes. We waited for probably 5-7 minutes and I finally clicked stopped as the train came to a stop at the platform. 

51 minutes and 45 seconds. This felt like a typical commute for the most part -- sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's shorter. For reference, MARC train schedules estimate that this trip should take 1 hour and 4 minutes, on this particular train. The time on my phone says "8:08" and the MARC schedule says this train is estimated to arrive into Union Station at 8:15, so an early train - woo!

Note that I started the timer when the train started moving, NOT when the train pulled into the Germantown station -- that's probably another good 3-4 minutes of people getting on the train at Germantown before it pulls out of the station. Remember, The Line?! That's how MARC determine trip lengths by when a train arrives at a station.

Also for reference there are trains that don't stop at all the stops so can significantly cut back on the travel time. The P878 -- 7:34 am departure from Germantown -- is what I like to call an "express train", or one that doesn't stop at all the little villages and towns along the way. 

Now, I did some more fun math this morning. I've been a full-time commuter on the MARC train since October 2012, meaning I use the MARC train daily more than 4 times a week. As I've noted before, because of my job and schedule, I often times have to take Metro to and from work to account for late hours, etc. So, I tried my best to estimate, based of previous spreadsheets I kept to track my finances with and just relied on general knowledge of holidays, vacations, days off, etc. to see how many trips I've taken on the MARC train in the last 2.5 years.

Drum roll please...approximately 43,964 minutes of my life have been spent on a commuter train so far (I'm not counting METRO at all). That's 732 hours and almost 45 minutes worth of sitting, and riding, and waiting. That's almost a full month -- 30.5 days -- - of commuting via MARC. 

That equals a nice, LONG vacation. Two paychecks worth of time. A full cycle of bills to be paid. That's 8% of a year of life. That's 6.3 years of the average American's life expectancy! That means that, at this rate, I'd have to ride the train daily as a commuter, for another almost 30 years (29.92 exactly) to have ridden the train non-stop for a full year of my life. Make sense? Holy bananas. Sad part is, that's not unrealistic to accomplish and I'm sure others have been doing it for 30+years already. And, since the Brunswick line goes all the way out to Martinsburg, West Virginia, some people are getting to that mark even quicker.

Anyway, a fun thing the mind does when sitting on the train -- it thinks of blog topics that either fascinate you or make you really, really sad for me. Hopefully it's the former.

Living transit maps

I get daily Washington Post alerts and in today's, the lead article was about what a computer programmer did with the information from the Oyster cards used on London's Tube and visualized a day's worth of commuting in a very, cool map. 

Can someone do this in DC? Pretty please?!

MARC train has multiple personalities

How's that for a headline? Well, it happened this morning on the MARC train into work. 

I've been bragging about riding on the new MARC double-decker train cars this past week or so and love the new features. So, I was on one again this morning (and yes, those plugs ARE under every seat I've sat in, so far!). As the train pulled into Union Station, in WASHINGTON, D.C., I noticed something out of the corner of my eye that looked like "NJT" on the electronic scrolling screens, on the inside of the train. But then it flipped back to saying something about MARC. Proof below.

Then all the the sudden, the automated recording comes on the loudspeaker, telling all us WASHINGTON commuters "Thank you for riding the New Jersey Transit." Well, that woke everyone up and if you were really groggy, hungover, or just not with it, you might have actually thought you were arriving into Newark, NJ for a New Jersey Devils game (no idea why I chose that team, other than the fact I remember passing their arena on my few Amtrak train trips into New York City, which rides parallel to the NJT for a bit, if I remember correctly). It was hilarious. And probably was a "you had to be there" kind of moment, but still, it made my morning!

Clearly, the Maryland Transit Administration will need to update that, but I'm still a fan of these cars and hope I get to ride on them daily...which if I keep taking the 7:11 one out of Germantown in the morning, it appears I will! 

So, Happy Friday to all and hope you have a weekend as happy as this puppy is! 

Best feature ever!

A few days ago, I blogged about the new MARC train cars and today I discovered the best thing discovered since the dawn of time. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration. But look!

I understand technology and upgrading take time, but my, oh my, why hasn't this been here since cell phones were invented?! There is no doubt, riders will rejoice and this will this do wonders for myself and all of the MARC train passengers who use their phones/computers/devices constantly during their commutes. Thank heavens. 

FYI - These are located underneath the seats in front of you and I'm assuming they are under each seat, but since this was the first day I've seen them, I'll have to sit in a different spot to truly know. Seriously though, best hump day discovery ever! 

Exact change

Just an interesting read about getting the perfect amount of money on your NYC subway fare card, here. 

Thankfully (?), D.C. doesn't have flat fares and I can literally put the $5.90 it costs me to go from Shady Grove to Judiciary Square, on my SmarTrip card, when I ride the Metro. 

Happy Monday, all!

Brand spankin' new

The other day, I got on the train and it was a new model of the double-decker cars on the MARC train system. I'm in love. (I think technically they are called "bi-level" cars, but I love London, so double-decker it shall be on this blog!)

The picture doesn't do it justice but it also smells brand spankin' new. Like a car just off the lot. :)

I'm assuming these are the ones that former Governor O'Malley mentions in this press release because I saw those 4 additional side doors as I exited the train the other day! Ooooo, fancy. 

Currently MARC has three models that I've ridden in/on. First, there's the old-school double-decker ones -- carriage cars. The lower level has normal 2x2 seats where you sit either facing the direction you're going or backwards. The upper level has a single row of seats, half of which face either front or back and the other half face towards the center of the car, with the space between the two sides, open to view down to the first level, and vice versa. Photo of exterior below. If I can find an interior, I'll update for sure!

The door is in the middle of the carriage cars, rather than the ends of the car.

The one that I tend to be on more than other ones is a single level with just a long row of seats. I posted a picture of the interior in this blog post. It has come to light, in recent events, that they are not the safest of train cars, when in a collision. 

The third kind are the newest model I've ridden on (until earlier this week). They are very similar to the newest car, with two levels. Almost like a split-level house, you have to choose whether you want to sit upstairs or downstairs almost immediately after entering the train car. The doors are at both ends and there seems to be more accommodations on these double-deckers for a larger quantity of people and even more ADA compliant than the single level cars. 

I'm super pumped to see this newest model in action on the Brunswick line earlier this week and hope to get more chances to test-ride in the coming months! Also, as much as the carriage cars are unique and old-school, I'll be glad when those are phased out of circulation.