Amtrak train travel is always a terrific way to get across the country and points in between. But in a time where they seem to be so many air accidents, long waits in airport terminals, increased and time-consuming security checks and high costs not only of flight tickets but in getting from airport to inner city, then trains seem so much better, more relaxed and certainly friendlier.
All of that was made clear to me once again this month when I took the Vermonter, the Amtrak train from Washington to St. Albans, Vermont, just this side of Canada for a couple of days of enjoying the wonderful small towns and lush green mountains of Vermont .
It’s always easy, safe and interesting at Newark’s Penn Station waiting between arriving on a New Jersey Transit train from Middletown and waiting to board an Amtrak train to anyplace. There are plenty of clean shops for browsing, or having a snack, fascinating to watch how the pigeons find their way into the station than walk round like they own the place while and well placed and easily viewable signs alerting passengers to times, platforms and statuses of all the trains coming and going. But there are also the Amtrak police.
They are always in the station, always highly visible, most times with well trained dogs leased beside them and always friendly though never without keeping their eye on everything and everyone.
One day last week, there was a particularly quarrelsome slovenly dressed man in the station who simply wasn’t having a good day and wanted everyone to know about it. He went up to one of the officers and simply started telling him what he thought about him … in more distasteful and foul adjectives than could fit in a single sentence!
When the officer didn’t respond, he simply got louder, found more adjectives seldom heard in polite surroundings, and drew closer to the officer, in case he couldn’t hear his bellows. The officer nodded his head, smiled, but said nothing and it went on for a few minutes. Obviously frustrated by his inability to rile or anger the officer, the man simply spewed out another list of expletives and stalked away, the whole time yelling even more as he slunk off doubtless in search of someone else to annoy. The officer continued walking around the waiting room, taking the loud-mouthed and highly rude person in his stride.
That same officer, one or two minutes later, found yet another gentleman lying asleep on one of the long rows of seats. Apparently either recognizing him as a frequent visitor or figuring he was not simply waiting for a train judging from his appearance and clothing, the officer simply spoke up a little bit and urged the gentleman to “get up, you’ve had enough sleep. It’s time to wake up and get moving.” That’s all it took and the sleeping visitor was on his way.
Two different situations handled two different ways, same great effect. And no problems or loud confrontations.
Getting into conversation with the officer later, I asked him how he can take the abuse yet be so nice and gentle in a different situation.
He smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said, “it works this way … It’s not worth the trouble.”
Train
