I took the light rail again today. I should do it more often. It's always an adventure. A man was sleeping across the aisle from me when I boarded. A few stops later, he woke up, dazed and confused. He looked around, and then said "What the fuck." And then he said "What the fuck." And then he said (are you surprised?) "What the fuck."

Seriously, that was all he said. Repeatedly. What the fuck, how about some variety? Maybe "Shit, how did I end up down here!" Or "Damn, no more tequila for me." Nope, just "what the fuck" over and over again.

A couple of signs on the train caught my eye though:





On the left, a list of things I can't do, including eating and drinking. On the right, a plea, recycle things you've brought on the train, including beverage cups and soda cans.

Uhm, how's that work? I can't eat or drink on the train, but if I am eating or drinking, I should recycle my waste. Yeah, ok, got it.

The way to San José

The light rail in San José (Valley Transit Authority - VTA) has never been particularly profitable. I think bumped into a poorly implemented cost-saving effort..

I was taking the Light Rail from downtown Campbell to downtown San José last night, and wanted to check the schedule online. My plan was to take the train northbound, from the Winchester station to the recently renovated Convention Center downtown. Seems simple enough. Except for some reason, their web site didn't list any northbound trains.

This problem seems to have been fixed - perhaps it was a north versus south thing - maybe a localized reenactment of the Civil War?

To confuse matters more (I was tired, many things were confusing), when I got on a train at the Winchester station, here's what the route map looked like:



In striking contrast, here's what the map looks like on the VTA site now:



See the difference? I was on the Campbell line, and yet, there was none shown on the map. If you look really closely, you can see the date on the map (my version, not theirs) - it's June 2004. That explains it. The line is only two years old, and to save money, VTA decided not to update the maps.