Many people who work in the city take commuter trains to work. If you are in the job force, and live in suburban, you may have more chance to see your neighbors on the train than in town, or in your village, -- if you live in New York state.

Commuter trains run more than twice as frequent in rush hours than as in non-rush hours. Sometimes, it can be crowded and you have to actually stand all the way. One day, a guy walked from one end of the full train car towards the other end, in the middle, he meet the conductor who was walking toward the opposite direction, collecting tickets.

Yes, they do check train tickets on the commuter trains. Most of the regular commuters use monthly pass. Many buy 10-trip tickets, occasional travelers will try to buy the ticket on the station. Paying the fare on the train is most expensive, depends on the hour and the length of the ride. It can be doubled. A one way trip from a closed-by town just outside New York city will cost $16+ for one way in rush hour.

This guy, wearing a school bag across his shoulder, apparently did not buy his ticket, but he sure knew about the price. When asked to purchase the ticket, he put his hand inside his bag. He searched for a while, pulled out a hand full of coins and handed to the conductors. The conductor, fortunately in his good mood, did not show a bit of annoyance, and started to count the money. The young man, hard to tell if he'd enjoying it or not, waited, as well as many others like me, patiently for the conductor to finished counting. The conductor seemed very focus on his work, going through very dime, nickel and quarter. Thank God, there isn¡¯t any penny.

When he¡¯s done, the young man asked was it right?
He answered, short of fifteen cents.

The young man put his hand into his big bag again, searched for quite a while, he retrieved a nickel. And handed to the conductor.
The conductor, perhaps after hard working of counting coins, did not want to just let the young man go like this. He said coldly, ¡°ten more cents¡±.

The young man again performed his magic-like searching in his now mysterious bag. He could not found more coins.
Then the conductor asked the young man to stay by the side, he would write him a bill or something for that ten cents.

While he was going to do so, he asked the people around causally who has ten cent for the man. Right away, someone handed out a dime for the conductor.
The young man and the conductor passed each other then continued their walk towards the opposite direction as before.

2010.06.14