This past weekend, I traveled five hours South from Providence to Philadelphia by train. Upon boarding, I chose a seat in the Quiet Car. I didn't intend on sitting in the Quiet Car but, once settled, I was thankful that I accidentally unloaded my gear into the seat I did. The motley crew that filed through the self-proclaimed library atmosphere to find a seat in the "Self-Unaware" or "Buffoon" cars would've gotten real old, real fast at close proximity.
The Quiet Car was nice. I was surrounded by a well-dressed businessman closing out his Thursday by preparing an Excel spreadsheet, an aspiring law student studying abnormal laws, and important women in pant suits and skirts with pantyhose. One of these things is not like the other...and that thing is me.
I sat in my seat silently, putzing through my Facebook news feed, texting a few of my favorites, listening to my Funky, Funky Christmas Pandora station (with my ear buds, obviously), and wondering why the seats on the opposite side of the aisle were labeled A and C. What happened to poor seat B?
There were a few knuckleheads around me that either didn't know they were in the Quiet Car or their definition of quiet is much different from Amtrak's. A few people went against the no cell phone rule, causing the staff to make reminder announcements...which goes against the whole concept of quiet, if you ask me. No one asked though.
As the ride continued, people obeyed the man wearing the conductor hat using the microphone...even the man that got up to get a snack from the dining cart three separate times for the loudest-to-open and loudest-to-consume items available. Phones seemed to be switched to silent and their owners began taking the vibrating phones into another car before they answered. That is until we got to New York's Penn Station. Don't you know that those crazy New Yorkers will do as they please? I avoided those pesky Yankee fans by pretending I was asleep in the aisle seat when they boarded so they couldn't easily sit next to me. That'll show them.
The ride through New Joy-sey went smoothly and quickly, and I was unboarding in the 30th Street Station in Philly before long.
A few days later, my ride home to Providence was not in a Quiet Car but it wasn't so bad. I enjoyed a chicken Caesar salad, flat bread, and a Coke that I purchased in the Philly station; finished the last few pages of David Robert's Wanderlush; and overheard a man paying his bills through an automated bill pay service...but he really wanted to talk to a representative...at 10:30 pm...on a Saturday evening. "Representative. Representative. I'd like to speak with a representative, please. Please let me speak to a representative."
There were definite pros and cons of the Quiet Car. Pro: you can nap, read, work, meditate, or simply watch the world go by in peace. Con: if you sneeze or clear your throat, they toss you from the moving train. I guess it all depends on your mood.
