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After the trauma

On Saturday night I was on a train home that derailed. Preliminary investigations by the NTSB suggest a service train violated our trains space as they were both traveling eastbound on both of the tracks. There had been service work on the Long Island Railroad trains all weekend.

It is so strange to go through this experience. In one instance, I am so connected to and on another I am brimming with curiosity. My day had been so wonderful up until that point and I’m finding it difficult to put the feeling out of my mind. A quote I read about another tragedy this weekend, the Palms Springs shooting of two police officers during a domestic violence call, replays in my mind. I feel awake in a nightmare.

The worst part on a personal level about today, about the day after, is I can’t stop feeling like I am shaking. My body is tense and if I close my eyes for too long or don’t have my mind occupied on something else, I get the sensation of being thrashed around. When our train and the other vehicle hit each other prompting the train to derail, that is the moment I keep reliving in my head. It’s not just picturing it over again, it’s the sensation of how my body was contorted. There was no sense of balance or control, it was chaos. In my head, the loud bang resounds and I cringe.

On another level, I have been viewing this day with profound humility. There were about 600 passengers on the train, 33 were injured and 4 seriously. I am so thankful to walk away from this event unscathed.

As a try to categorize my thoughts and reflect, I’m reminded about my fortune. It’s been a crazy 24 hours. At the moment, my life exists in a fishbowl and I’m not sure if I’m look in or looking out.

For more information on the LIRR derailment, read up on the following news links:

Time: http://time.com/4524216/long-island-train-derailment-what-to-know 

ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/US/commuter-train-derails-east-nyc-injuring-11/story?id=42675137

train

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Phew

I’m really glad I made it into work today, it was such a struggle. We were once again pelted with another snowstorm. These legendary Nor-Easters bring the region to a halt. Yesterday we were sent home early from work because the conditions were so bad.

I planned to drive in to work today because I figure the roads would be plowed, but my family talked me out of it. I also live 30 miles from my job. I shoveled my driveway and was warming up my car when my mom intervened. Instead my dad dropped me off at the train station, but I was a minute late for the train, and we pulled up as it chugged out of station. Bummer. The next train wasn’t until an hour later, but I had no choice, and stuck it out in the freezing temperature. Since the trains were running on their weekend schedules I had to transfer and wait twenty minutes for my transfer train. When I finally got to my station I hopped in a cab and made it to work. Only about five other people in my department made it in today.

I’m feeling a bit under the weather, unfortunately. I wore two pairs of socks and plastic bags in my snow boots, fleece leggings underneath my work pants, thermals, a t-shirt, and a a faux-fur lined sweater and I was still cold underneath my winter coat, scarf, gloves, etc. Water must have seeped into my boots when I had shoveled snow because my feet were wet the whole time I was waiting for the train. I cannot wait to take a hot shower/bath when I get home tonight. My commute home will be a pain in the neck too, no doubt.

But I like my job, and it’s important. I just wished the transportation worked out better…

Definitely cannot wait any longer for spring.

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Paper comes out tomorrow!

I’ll have another article in the printed edition of the Long Island Press, but here’s one that I covered today.

The new Barclays Center in Brooklyn is sure to attract a lot of Long Islanders to its concerts and events. The Long Island Railroad is adding more trains to the Atlantic Avenue terminal.

 

Check out my coverage here!

 

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Writing the rights of rites?

Haha, okay the title is a joke.  But it’s only a joke for me and my sillyness.

Anyway, yesterday was my meeting in the city.  My website idea is good but I need to start getting serious about it if it’ll ever work.  I’m going to ask some of my most trusted and creative friends/family to sort of work with me.  Some friends I can springboard ideas off of at a rapid-fire.

I also really want to get my other blog idea started, a literary journalism online magazine.  There are so many of them out there but I think if it features fresh quality work, it can happen, plus, I’ll send the link to colleagues/peers of mine.  And my LinkedIn.

So, anyway back to yesterday in the city.

I don’t know if I’ve shared this before, but, I am so directionally challenged.

I need to use a map to get anywhere in the city (and I never drive without my GPS).

I have no idea as to why I do not possess the talent of knowing where the hell to go, but I sure wish I had it.

Yesterday wasn’t so bad though, I walked in the wrong direction a few times and looked at a map the wrong way which led me in the opposite direction of Penn, but that’s okay, I eventually got there and didn’t miss my train.

Speaking of the LIRR, the air condition wasn’t working in the car and it was so hot.  The LIRR worker kept trying to get it to start and he totally didn’t clip my ticket. So yay, I get a free ride!  This is especially good because I accidentally purchased the wrong station and also under off-peak hours.  But I was traveling on peak. Thank you Mr. LIRR guy. Even though it was hotter than how the Internet feels about Kate Upton, a free ride is always nice too.  Especially since the LIRR is super expensive.

Okay, no one likes long posts, but I wanted to prattle on.

OH YEAH AND YOU LIKE THE NEW THEME?  IT’S FUN. I am fun ^.^

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East Side Access!

Here I am inside the East Side Access Tunnel, Manhattan side of the project.

 

The East Side Access Tunnel trip was incredibly fascinating and I learned so much.  To reiterate, the East Side Access is a project connecting the LIRR to Grand Central Station.  The LIRR only goes to Penn Station, which leaves many commuters with a long journey to work.  Creating this project by adding three new tracks that will use the 63rd street tunnel, which was built in the late 60s and 70s and nicknamed the ‘tunnel to nowhere,’ even though it will be serving this project.  The F train uses the two upper tracks of the tunnel, while the lower two tracks have been unused.  They will be used by the East Side Access trains once this project is completed.

We first toured the Queens side, which is less complete.  The Queens side is more complicated then the Manhattan side because they water table is only 10 feet below ground, which Manhattan is solid rock.  They are working on finishing excavating the tunnels and then connecting them in the break section.  We didn’t get a chance to see an actual tunnel boring machine (TBM) since our tour was running late.  The TBM’s are apparently ginormous and its job is to excavate a circular cross-section.  The excavation is then lined with gigantic concrete slabs, which serve as the basis of the tunnel.  There’s about 2,400 workers and the project has been in progress for 10 years.  Completion is not expected until 2019, mostly due to financial and budgeting problems.  There has only been 1 death in

The top three tunnels are ‘revenue,’ which means passenger trains will be using those, and the fourth one, hard to see, but it’s on the bottom moves trains to their needed locations.’

 

When we went to the Manhattan side, my best comparison is to an alien planet.  It’s super dark and dusty, and completely muddy.  The temporary lights only illuminate sections being worked on, and in every direction you can see the eerie glow of them, and some huge machine tearing through dirt, or drilling, or something else that needs to be done.

Here’s a tunnel being worked on, I believed this one leads down to a would-be subway platform.

Here’s a tunnel being worked on, I believed this one leads down to a would-be subway platform.

 

 

Doesn’t this look so eerie? Wish I brought my better camera to capture its’ craziness.

 

I wish I brought my better D-SLR camera to snag better quality shots but I was afraid of it getting damaged or dirty, I did not know what to expect.  When we were in the Manhattan tunnels, we were not allowed to use flash for two reasons: 1. The air was so dusty. 2. A camera flash might confuse the workers of a blast, which can be very dangerous to them.

One of my favorite parts was returning to the surface after the Manhattan trip. I had forgotten after we had taken the subway from Queens to Grand Central that we entered the site from a specialized personnel door in the terminal.  To think that this other planet of construction was just a few hundred feet from the elegant Grand Central station was just… unbelievable.  It definitely contributed to the feeling of being on another planet.

The workers are also all over the world and are highly specialized and many of the machines used are also from all parts of the world, mainly Germany.  It was also good for me to see four female workers, all engineers, and despite the dirty workplace, they looked great.

The East Side Access Tunnel project was definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me.  It is currently the biggest kind of it’s project in North America, and to witness the creation of something that will serve thousands of tri-state area residents and travelers is an awesome feeling.

This is an artists’ rendering of what the terminal and platform addition sto Grand Central will look like.