No 'donkeys' allowed on SunRail

Are there SunRail riders who really get on your nerves?

The kind of riders who take up more than one seat with their feet, packages or widely spread legs; the litter bugs; the noisemakers; the drunks, and the slow pokes who take forever to get off the train?

CJ Smith has a name for those thoughtless riders. She calls them “donkeys.”

Where CJ is from “donkey” is an insult. CJ lives in metropolitan Toronto where she rides the Go Transit commuter train and writes the www.thiscrazytrain.com blog about the thoughtless jerks she and her fellow riders cope with daily.

A couple of months back we exchanged emails with CJ who saw a photo of a SunRail platform and she marveled at its pristine condition, compared to the situation on the crazy train in Toronto.

It’s nice to read compliments about SunRail, but recently we’ve started noticing carelessly dropped gum and other litter on a few platforms and trains. And other SunRail riders have told us about people smoking on platforms, drunks and other rude behavior by a few riders.

No offense, but, we don’t want SunRail to become like the New York City subway, or CJ’s “crazy train”.

We want SunRail trains and stations to remain clean, comfortable, friendly and safe.

Each one of us has the power to help maintain the SunRail trains and stations. Hate to admit it, but we’ve been guilty of hogging more than one seat when we placed our knapsack next to us. Next time we’ll put it on the floor to make room for others to sit.

We also need to get prepared to get off the train before the train reaches our destination, and let passengers get off before trying to board the train. This helps keep the train on schedule – lost seconds, become lost minutes and the next thing you know the train is running late.

If we see others engaged in thoughtless or rude behavior we shouldn’t put ourselves at risk by confronting them, but we’ll do ourselves and other riders a favor by reporting the rude riders to the conductor or station Ambassador.

Whatever you do, don’t become a “donkey”.

And if you want a couple of chuckles, check out CJ’s crazy train blog.

See you on The Rail.