Commuting is a pain enough so why do they have to keep throwing up new huddles for us to clear?  I spent all weekend and Monday and Tuesday dealing with late ferries, train construction and missed connections, but this morning’s commute was the topper. 

So, I’m already running late this morning, but hey, since the job is freaking out about hours worked and OT, fine, I’ll just get the next train.  Unfortunately, I choose to let the local pass and made my way to the station to catch the express train to the ferry.  And we wait.  And wait.  The train is 5 minutes late.  Seven minutes late.  Ten minutes late.  The train never came.  I’m not exaggerating for dramatic effect, it never came.  The train that should have been our express ride to the ferry 15 minutes earlier blew by our station in a frantic effort to get the half-empty train to the ferry terminal in time to make the 8:15 boat.  Its delay caused the local behind it to come late. 

So when that train finally arrived, we get onboard and headed to St. George.  Sure, the 8:15 is long gone, but it’s 8:25, so you’d figure we’d catch the 8:30 boat, right?  I mean, after all the train station and the ferry terminal are the same building.  But no.  There’s construction, still.  The whole train terminal is a bottleneck.  Plus you have people standing in the bottleneck who are waiting to get on the train we’re exiting.  Although how they expect to get on the train before we get off and can’t because they’re blocking our way, I don’t know.  So, we miss the 8:30.  Heaven forbid the ferry wait a minute to get the train passengers because they have to maintain their precious on-time record.  What’s that you say?  The next boat, the 8:45, the Molinari, isn’t here yet and it’s 8:45?  You mean they don’t get underway until 8:55?  Oh, sure, no problem, I’ve already missed two boats, why not make it like I’m missing a 3rd?

Staten Island has two major pieces of transportation and they can’t even bother to co-ordinate their transfers?  When they run right, they’re fine.  But have one thing go awry and the whole system implodes with no flexibility or resources to get themselves back on track (figuratively and literally).

And that’s just to get to Manhattan.  I don’t know how the people who go uptown do it.

So to go throught the Staten Island bridge tollboths you now have to pay $12.00???  I've gotten through McDonalds' Drive-Thru window for less than that.