For instance, they replenished their stock with some new or at least upgraded buses and cars. One of the advertised highlights of that upgrade was air conditioning. Promising as it sounded, it immediately turned into another nightmare. Instead of in freezing cars I now have to ride in overheated cars. And I mean a sauna. The windows have been blocked and the doors only open when passengers press "cold buttons" when they want to enter or exit. Bus drivers strip down to their shirts and heat the damn buses to suit themselves. Which means if you ride to work for thirty or forty minutes, unless you take your coat off, too, you'll have sweat literally dripping off you, ruining your hair, the freshly pressed shirt, suit or whatever you're wearing.
I also remember once boarding a train on a cold October morning to discover that it was close to 30 C inside. Windows blocked. Within two minutes, red-faced and dripping sweat from everywhere possible, I approached the train staff asking them to turn off the heat. "It's air conditioning", the answer was, "we've just turned it on. It's going to cool down in about fifteen minutes". Well, that's too late. In about fifteen minutes I was about to already leave the train, back to the cold October morning, steam rising from my clothes, wondering if I was going to come down with a cold on that very day or perhaps the following one. They sounded a bit embarassed about the situation because they had only hauled the train from its last stop back into service, so they had had time to adjust that temperature before passengers boarded, they just didn't think of it, and, apparently, appropriate procedures were not in place.
Another feature of the air conditioning used to be the smell, especially on buses. I don't know whether it was some kind of filters not getting changed or the smell of passengers themselves lingering inside but you practically needed to stop breathing and put on an oxygen mask upon entering a bus. It was unbearable. Luckily, I found my way around it. Transit authorities began updating their schedules with information on the type of bus in service at any given hour. I was so grateful. Took care to only ride the old ones where windows opened, and avoided the upgraded stock.But it's the passengers who have been the worst. Some of them don't wash often enough, while others maintain inappropriate diet, resulting in gastric problems. It would never occur to me to leave the house without showering. But not everybody gives in to such a waste of time in the wee hours. Greasy hair and smelly bodies splashed with nauseating, cheap colognes. Smoker's breath. The smell of vodka and garlic sausage from yesterday, or of that yummy breakfast of white cheese with chives, burped and exhaled at the unsuspecting you from behind. Chirpy ladies who don't feel the need to lower their voices. Folk reeking of suffocating perfume.
I brace myself to endure these stimuli each time I have to take a bus early in the morning. I never know which ones I'd have to deal with this time and the suspense only adds to the stress of having to get up at five a.m.
Today they were the sauna and the chives breath. A tall, ugly guy sneaked up behind me at one of the early stops and burped. With a hood over my head I had no idea he was even there until I smelled chives. I held my breath and turned to locate the culprit. He just stood there as if nothing had happened. So I moved away. So he moved to the comfortable spot by the window that I left.
Well. The good news that I keep repeating to myself is that at least the bus is never very crowded - I live close to the last stop and don't commute all the way to the city - and I actually can move about and away. Other, and very good, news is that I only get to take that early morning bus once a month. But I can't help wondering how long - if ever - it takes people to get rid of their disgusting habits as they watch the world around them change.
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