I so miss New York!

A detour on the way back to the hotel reminds me of the items big and small which make New York unique. While I have loved trains since I was a boy and am a full-throated advocate of mass-transit the legions of shortcomings with the T start with the fact there are no express trains! If there is a hold up, such as this evening, the traveling public is out of luck!

Coming back from {great metropolitan newspaper} on the T I heard the announcement that sent a shiver down the spine "shuttle bus service from Broadway to Harvard Square". {sigh}

20080527 026, originally uploaded by tlillis4.

and it's not the good Broadway, either

Broadway station is in an awkward spot. It is the last diamond before Downtown Crossing, which means that this is the last station where a train can turn around and go back the other direction. It is also a small station even by T standards. Imagine, then, this tiny station being saturated with grumpy commuters getting of/on the train from shuttle buses.

20080527 026, originally uploaded by tlillis4.

Naturally, the escalator was broken

Although, I must admit that there were no waits for the buses. I was disappointed that The Quiet Man pub had closed...

20080527 0047, originally uploaded by tlillis4.

I couldn't get any pictures on the bus - it was too crowded. And it wasn't an urban crowd either - more like a bunch of suburbanites although very few got off at South Station. Speaking of which, the mob at South Station was in mid-riot when we stopped there since the MBTA didn't think to send a bus directly there.

There was one small consolation, I was dropped off less than a block from my hotel which was three fewer blocks in the rain.

20080527 026, originally uploaded by tlillis4.