This morning we got to somewhere around North Elizabeth and slowed to a crawl. Crept into Newark, eventually, and I got an email alert that there was a "medical emergency" somewhere in the system, which was supposedly slowing us down.
What they didn't mention was that the "patient" was actually the electric lines that give juice to the trains. We got past Newark and into no-man's-land, aka the Meadowlands, and stopped, then the lights flickered and went out. As did the a/c.
Eventually someone announced that Amtrak was having low voltage problems on the catenary lines, and the dispatcher was relaying that info to someone who could maybe fix it.
We sat for about a half hour, though the lights and a/c came back on somewhat sooner. Then we had to crawl the rest of the way to NY Penn, since there was a line of stuck trains that all had to get going again, were all behind schedule, and couldn't all go at one time because of there only being one track through the tunnel, as I've mentioned before.
I finally got to the office about 9.53. I usually get here at 9.10. Better late than never? At least nobody went postal on the train, and the quiet car stayed pretty quiet through the wait, which is totally amazing.
I must admit, I was vaguely disappointed to learn the real cause of the delay. I had imagined that the hamster running our train had died (I always thought they had hamsters on those little wheels generating the electricity), and they were sending the conductors out into the swamp to try to catch some rats as replacements.
No, I really haven't lost my mind entirely. I've just been riding NJT much too much.
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