Each weekday my uncle and cousin take the train in from New Jersey to get to their jobs in New York City. This week marked a new era for them and thousands of other train commuters with the introduction of New Jersey Transit’s first multilevel train car. It currently runs from Trenton to New York and yesterday, according to my family members, it was filled with (gasp!) happy commuters.
The introduction of the new train car is the first step in a two-year effort that will result in putting 234 of the double-decker cars to use. The cars offer more seats; more legroom and none of those crooked middle seats that were the bane of my uncle’s existence. (The new train cars have two seats per row.)
Currently, only commuters on the Northeast Corridor line will get to ride in style, but according to the Transit authority, more trains will appear next spring on other lines. By summer, New Jersey Transit will be getting ten cars per month, enough to assemble one long train per month.
And the good news for Big Apple commuters doesn’t stop there… my aunt (who doesn’t commute at all) is rejoicing because now she will be getting a reprieve from fixing my cousin’s (another cousin–not the New Jersey cousin) pants. Don’t get her started about how many hours she has spent repairing his pockets after they have become victims of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). If you ride the Metro-North or the LIRR then you know what I’m referring to.
Due to a design flaw in the rail cars, countless commuters have torn their pockets on the armrests when they sit down or stand up too quickly. But, it’s not just pants pockets, I have ridden in these cars myself and the armrests are constantly snagging—EVERYTHING. Jeans, jackets, bags… you name it and it has likely been attacked by the armrest.
The problem is that the armrests in the more than 1000 cars used on Metro-North and the LIRR are slightly longer than the armrest in older railcars so someone came up with the idea of covering them in a rubbery material that grips fabric.
According to railroad executives, they have paid out more than $102,000 to customers who have filed complaints about clothing torn on the faulty armrests. It finally prompted rail officials to take action. Rail workers say in a few weeks, a newly-designed armrest will be installed in one railcar to see how well it works. The prototype is three inches shorter than the current armrest, and it’s covered in shiny plastic, instead of the rubbery material that attacks fabric.
I can hear commuters (and their seamstress mothers) cheering now.
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