SwissWatching

Today, as I approached the platform in the train station on the way to class, I saw a crowd curiously gathered around a group of men in orange reflective vests, surrounding the trash can on the platform.  Turns out the trash can was a diversion.  The three men in vests, employees of “RailClean,” the part of the SBB that cleans train stations, were busy cleaning.  One was taking notes on his clipboard, using the shiny-as-usual trash can as a desk.  The other one was standing there, watching.  The third, and this was the exciting part, was cleaning.

What was he cleaning?  Oh yes.  He was cleaning the cement rail/arm rest on the side of a bench on the platform.  More precisely, he was removing the heart that had been tagged on said cement rail with what looked like a permanent marker.  Even the other Swiss people, who normally walk by RailClean employees scrubbing trash cans without a blink, were excited by this one.  So I stood along with the crowd and looked on in amazement.

The guy had a glass box, which you can see in the photo above, which he was fitting, open side down, on top of the enemy heart.  He was slowly destroying the heart by way of blasting the power hose, which entered through the top of the box, at it.  The box was only useful in so far as it allowed said power washing to take place in broad daylight in a busy train station without getting more than a square 10 inches wet.  Maybe the box had a vacuum, too?  Or maybe it was not water at all?  In any case, it was very effective; by the time my train came and I thought to snap this picture, two minutes after he started, the little heart was almost gone and the cement rail was looking sparkling (well, as sparkling as cement gets) new.

Ah, the jobs that the US could create…inventing specialized cleaning machines, paying people to clean, paying people to take notes on people cleaning…

Hinei rakevet, shmistovevet, al galgalim al galgalim al galgalim toot toot! (Here is a train that goes around on wheels on wheels on wheels toot toot!)

That is my favorite (hah! not!) song from Camp Harlam song sessions (see 6:45 pm…and while I am no Rachel, I did have 4 Rachels in a bunk of 14 girls one summer).  I think of this song often these days because I spend an awful lot of my time on trains—at least 6 hours total per week, not including buses, trams, sidewalks, train stations, and the other trappings of a frequent commute.  Ah, the SBB-CFF-FFS.

Many people have heard me complain about my commute, but not on the blog.  In general, I find it impossible to work on the trains.  What with frequent stops, overcrowding, lack of tables, 4-seats-to-a-pod seating style, young male soldiers hanging about in uniform, cell phone and otherwise loud chatter, ipod headphones blaring, and various munching, it is incredibly difficult to focus and find a comfortable position for reading academic articles.  Yet, if I don’t use that time in a productive way, I tend to just feel guilty about it.  I envy those without commutes, but I also envy commuters who can relax to a newspaper/ipod/novel and don’t have to balance their lunchboxes on top of heavy backpacks on top of their legs on top of their coats.  Swiss public transport is excellent as compared with other poor systems, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, particularly on the Geneva-Lausanne line, which is infamous for its delays and overcrowding.

I was inspired to write this post today because on my way to class this afternoon, I observed a man struggling with the train ride as much as I often do.  The problem? The door at the end of the car wasn’t closing automatically, so every time someone walked between cars or the train stopped to let on/off passengers, the door would be left open, and it would be noisy and cold.  This man, sitting a few pods away from the door, kept standing up to close it, immediately after which, someone would enter anew and leave it open.  Finally, he gave up and moved to another car.  I completely sympathized.  I myself have moved cars because of non-functioning automatic doors, and I have agonized over if it is incredibly rude to change seats when someone sits down next to me with their ipod headphones acting like boomboxes more than headphones.  However, I did not share this frustration with the man today, as I had my earplugs with me, so I popped them in, and all was quieter with the world.

While I haven’t gotten anywhere close to conquering my commute, there are some things I have learned which can make it a bit better.  So for those of you out there who face similar commutes of your own or who think it might be amusing to read what ridiculous things I think about every time I get on a train, here are some tips for dealing with a commute on the SBB: Continue Reading »

Yesterday morning, I was stranded at the train station. Again.

Swiss trains are celebrated for their efficiency, not only in terms of their extensive coverage and frequent trains, but also for sticking to their timetables and ensuring that the tightly-scheduled standard 5 minutes to make connections can be accomplished. Since I have been here, I have discovered an exception to this rule: the line between Lausanne and Geneva. Apparently, this is a well-known exception. Several times a week, there are delays, but they are usually posted on the track with precision: “3 minutes late.” There are a mix of local and express trains, so sometimes I change in Lausanne for an express train, and even a delay of 3 minutes means a panicked sprint across the station. One time, there was an express train delayed from Lausanne by something like 20 minutes–and I walked into class 3 minutes late in Geneva, which wasn’t too bad, because the professor was also 3 minutes late. So the day-to-day, normal routine is unstable already.

But the last two weeks have really been infuriating. Last Wednesday, my parents came in from the airport early in the morning. The idea was that we’d meet them on the track in our town of Renens, then we’d go back to my apartment for coffee, and then I’d go back to the station to go into school while they recovered from their flight in my apartment. This became a big disaster when we arrived at the station to meet them to a sign of “Indefinite Delay.” My parents got in way late and I had to leave way early to ensure on-time arrival to turn in a take-home exam and do an oral presentation–fortunately, I had Seth to cover for me re parents. I can hardly blame the trains for this problem, as it turns out that someone had gotten hit on the tracks–although one would think that perhaps there would be a contingency plan other than cancelling all trains on a major commuter line for several hours in a country where all kinds of people, and lots of them, rely on public transportation.  Like in Boston last spring, when there was a fire in the T, they ran emergency buses to get people where they need to go.

Yesterday, en route to the same class, things were screwed up again, at the same station where someone had been smushed last week. There was a “signal box malfunction” there, whatever that means. And no way for trains to get around that problem. So all trains for about two hours were cancelled. There was incomplete information, so I thought I might fare better by going to Lausanne from Renens to catch an express train, which I tried, and then it turned out that express trains were not going through either. So I was stuck with a few other students from my school, and we went to a nearby cafe and emailed our apologetic excuses to our professors. And then walked into class an hour late.

There is no other way to get to Geneva that I know of. There are a few ferries, but they’re mostly in the summer, and they’re slow. There are very very expensive taxis. There are no buses. I guess I could buy a car, but then I’d just get stuck in the traffic on the one highway. What am I supposed to do–leave an hour or two early every day for class just in case there is a complete public transportation meltdown? How many times will professors believe the excuse “my train was delayed/cancelled?” Swiss efficiency, you are so elusive!