Getting There is 1/2 the Fun: The Good & Bad of The Belmont Stakes
June 10th 2007 07:56 pm
Yesterday was the 139th Belmont Stakes which was won by the brilliant filly Rags To Riches becoming the first filly to win the race since Tanya did it in 1905–yes, 102 years ago.
Since I like to get to the track very early so I can do my pre-race analysis, I walked over to the Chatham train station to get the 8:36 A.M MidTown Direct to NY Penn. At 8:30 A.M. an announcement was made: “Attention Chatham Passengers, the 8:36 A.M. train to New York is operating 12 minutes late”. No mention of why, just that it’s late. The train arrived at 8:50 A.M. The train sat at Summit for a good 3 minutes with one of the conductors shouting into the intercom “check end doors’. This, I might add, is a common occurrence. We then made good time to Maplewood and then proceeded to go slow from there until Newark. When we got to the Kearny Connection to get up onto the NEC, we came to a stop. We were there for 10 minutes. The crew announced: The Portal Bridge is open and we can’t move until it’s closed–we apologize; but, it’s totally out of our control”. Now, if word had been gotten to the crew at Newark, I could have taken a Hoboken train and then taken PATH; but, that was not to be. We finally made it to Penn Station at 9:55 A.M. The Belmont Race Track special train was two tracks away; so, I ran like heck and made the LIRR 9:59 A.M. Still good to know that these 54 year old legs can move that fast.
Not to be outdone, LIRR proceeded to crawl to Belmont for inexplicable reasons. They stopped at Jamaica where they spent 20 minutes just sitting there. The crew came on several times telling us they were “waiting for a more favorable signal”. I ultimately arrived at Belmont Park at 11:30, some 3 hours after I set out from Chatham.
The ride back was exciting. The LIRR train moved no more than 10 feet when a drunk pulled the emergency brake. The idiot was given a verbal thrashing by the motorman and conductor. However, the train missed its slot; so, any hope of making the 7:11 P.M. MidTown Direct were going out the window. The train was finally set and ready to move and we moved about 20 feet when–you guessed it–the idiot pulled the emergency brake again. This time, two NY State troopers, who had more muscles than Samson, came on board, cuffed the guy and physically threw him out of the train–to the great cheers of the passengers. I can say the troopers were not treating this drunk kindly since he took to spitting at the troopers until his stomach caught up with his inebriation and he vomited all over himself. Ah, what would a Belmont be without a little vomit.
We finally got moving and did the snail’s crawl to Penn Station. I caught the 9:11 PM MidTown Direct and was home at 10:20 PM–a long day.
Bob Scheurle responded on 10 Jun 2007 at 8:09 pm #
It sounds like the horses were faster than the trains!
Joe Versaggi responded on 11 Jun 2007 at 7:46 am #
Next time - DRIVE, and tell NJT why.
LRTADV responded on 11 Jun 2007 at 4:48 pm #
Let’s hope things go better when the Breeder’s Cup comes to Monmouth later this year!!!
alewifebp responded on 11 Jun 2007 at 10:27 pm #
Shouldn’t you say engineer, and not motorman?
And what kind of set was it that had door problems? I can almost guarantee that it was a mixed consist with a bunch of Comet V’s. It that had been all Comet IV’s, I doubt you would have door problems.
coffeelen responded on 12 Jun 2007 at 8:47 pm #
A very mixed consist it was!