NJ Transit: Quiet Does Not Mean Silent!

Loose lips, uhm, derail trains?

Commuter chaos! Last week New Jersey Transit expanded its "quiet commute" program, where the first and last cars are designated as quiet cars, and the change—though already popular—has apparently not been smooth. Because, really, how do you define quiet?

We always thought that quiet cars meant whispering, no-phones and generally being courteous to your fellow riders. But some people apparently have much stronger opinions on the matter. One whiner the Times overheard complaining "asked a conductor if he could disable the automated announcements, which inform riders of impending stops, as well as the conductor’s work radio, which he needed to stay in contact with the train’s engineer." And another was livid when a conductor didn't take her side regarding a duo having a quiet conversation in the car (“They do have a right to talk,” the conductor said in a soft voice, “they just have to speak in a very quiet manner.”).

So let's be clear folks! Quiet does not mean silence, OK? And specifically, on NJ Transit trains, the rules allow for "conversations conducted in subdued voices." Glad to have that cleared up.

The issues over the program aren't all about excess noise though. A writer on the commuter blog Trainjotting argues that the problem isn't so much the noisy folks in the quiet cars as it is the quiet cars are already too popular. And when everybody wants the quiet, settling on a definition can be tricky. Maybe the whole train should be quiet and there can be two "noisy" cars instead?

Anyway, reading about commuter troubles always makes us imagine the same problems on our rails...can you imagine if they tried to put a quiet car on the subway?