journal features
movie reviews
photo of the day

traffic, bloody traffic

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2010.11.23

I'm struggling with the train system in Toronto. Tokyo's transit looks better all the time by comparison.

I'm very grateful that there's a train system at all. That's certainly not a given in North America. But tonight for instance it took me two hours to get home from downtown. There just aren't enough trains! And the swipe-card system that allows you to pay is barely functional: yesterday I missed two trains while the staff tried (and failed) to puzzle out what was wrong with my card. Again this morning I had to check in at Union Station to reverse an overpayment.

rand()m quote

A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupery