Palm Tran and Tri-Rail vs A Rental Car

"Getting Lost While Using Palm Tran and Tri-Rail Still Better Than Paying Another $37 For a Rental Car" by v. johns, 9/9/09, 8:30 PM

I called up Macco today (Wed., Aug 26) to see if my car was ready. The owner said it would be ready anytime after four. One problem: If I didn’t have my rental car back to Enterprise by 1:30PM, I’d be charged for a full day’s rental at $37.

I decided to get off my butt and turn the car in. The problem is what to do in the meantime. I figured that instead of waiting 2 and a half hours at Enterprise or Macco (in Lake Park), I’d ride Palm Tran to downtown West Palm Beach and I’d either spend some time in West Palm’s brand new city library or I’d take the Tri-rail train to PBCC to get my parking decal. If I had it to do all over again, I would have killed some time in the library, but I was in such a hurry to get a parking decal for a class I’m taking at PBCC that once I arrived at the Intermodal Transit Center downtown, I impulsively purchased a roundtrip ticket to Lake Worth.

I got on Palm Tran in Lake Park, sometime after 1:30PM. There was a stop right by the Enterprise rental car office. If it wasn’t for a nice older gentleman renting a car there giving me 50 cents, on goodwill, I would have been short by that much on the fare. And as cold and un-lively as the bus driver was, perhaps I might have incurred some hassle or another to his ire. Along the way, I noticed various people getting on and off between Lake Park and West Palm. I was praying I wouldn’t get that “You ain’t from ‘round here” look as the bus plowed deeper and deeper through some of Palm Beach County’s roughest neighborhoods along U.S. 1. To my delight, most people just minded their own business, were in their own world, and didn’t even notice I was there. Moving quickly down U.S. 1, I noticed that all kinds of people ride the bus and that the ghettos of Palm Beach County, though predominantly black, are lived in and traveled through by people of many races, incomes and ethnicities.

Since the cold, un-lively bus driver I had to endure on the way to the transit center was apparently too slow or unskilled to get to the Transit Center before the 2:16 southbound train took off, I had to wait another hour before the next train came at 3:16. I knew something was up when some young guy on the bus asked me the time. He seemed to be pretty peeved at driver, referring to him as “so slow.” Probably had one too many cigarette breaks.

The closer it got to 3:16, the more people showed up and gathered around. These train travelers are a lively bunch. Conversation and banter all over the place. Reminded me of my days at C.K. Steele Plaza in Tallahassee waiting on Tal-Tran transfers. Anyway, before the train got there (the P631), southbound riders were informed to go over to Track 2. So, as if I’d been riding Tri-Rail for ages, I immediately headed to the elevator to use to over-tracks crosswalk. Nice view of the West Palm Beach skyline from that vantage point.

Upon P631's arrival, I was headed toward the front of the train, thinking that perhaps I’d get on in front and show my ticket to someone, but I noticed that people were boarding through all doors on the train. So I did the same. I was like, “Okay, uhhhh, what if I’m a terrorist or something?” But upon settling in on the second level somewhere, a security guard popped out of nowhere to check for tickets. Question answered.

My train ride to Lake Worth was less than stellar. Well, make that kinda stellar, but much less stellar than I thought it would be. Pretty quiet ride. Much quieter and seemingly slower than I imagined. The only bad thing about the ride was that while riding, there was a lot of grinding of the wheels against the tracks and the train felt like it was going to tip over at anytime. It’s very clear to me now that these trains are old and really do need replacing as the Palm Beach Post has been reporting.

My arrival at the Lake Worth station was puzzling. There was no full-service ticket counter. There were only automated ticket machines there. A few ladies and one gentleman there couldn’t seem to get the machines to work. The two ladies boarding desperately asked me for help as I got off looking for a bus stop. I told them that I didn't know if they could board or not. Not wanting to miss their ride, they scurried onboard in a nick of time. I imagine the security guard onboard might have helped them out at some point. I feel bad that I couldn’t have helped them, but I was just as confused as they were. This is the first time I’ve ever used Tri-Rail or Palm Tran.

The station appeared to be abandoned. I wondered if there was a bus stop there at all. Then I realized it was under the interstate (95) where a bunch of cars were parked. I just had to have a few people point out to me exactly where it was. From the stop, I saw an attendant maintaining the train station's boarding area. A senior lady waiting at the bus stop helped me with the routes. One bus driver, on the arriving route got off and another came on. Shift change I guess. Upon getting on, I was blown away by one young, college-aged Latina’s serene good looks. Hel-lo! I also noticed that the bus was damn near full. But besides all that, it was cool to see that no one made a big deal over my apparent confusion in using the bus system.

Not realizing I could use my Tri-Rail ticket to catch the bus heading to PBCC, as a transfer, I put in $1.75 (Fare is $1.50), but the bus driver, just coming on her shift, I think, was nice enough to refund my cash in the form of an all day-pass. She also gave me a tip on what bus to catch to get back to the Tri-Rail station in time to catch the next train. I caught that bus by luck. After going to the cashier’s office at PBCC and then leaving the decal office, which I had trouble finding, I realized that the decal office at PBCC was not too far from where I had been dropped off! On my way to the stop I got… Cat called?... by two mature women talking. One of ‘em said that she wished that she “had a man.” If only I wasn’t pressed for time... I made it to the bus stop jut in a nick of time, but at what cost? A lost chance at a hot date? Anyway, the driver on this route, back to the train station, was pretty cool, also. Very helpful. Not moody like Mr. Grumpy on the southbound route 1 earlier that day.

Back at the train station, I used my wait time to study the Palm Tran schedules. I ended up having to call for route information. Their booklets aren’t the easiest to navigate. Much like reading “Klingon.” During my wait there an Amtrak blazed by and damn near blew my scalp off! One tough biker-looking dude was pacing about. A young African-American girl, also on the southbound side, was sitting there with her boyfriend talking trash and staring angrily in my direction. I take it that she was a student at PBCC and I’d rubbed her the wrong way on campus at some point (Can’t win ‘em all, huh?). So, as you can imagine, I was happy to see the southbound finally roll in so I wouldn’t have to look at her poor excuse for a face anymore. Shortly afterwards, the northbound rolled in at 4:49… sharp!

My train ride back to downtown West Palm Beach was pretty much the same. Quiet, peaceful, quick and easy-going. Nobody really noticing me and nobody messin’ with me. Just the way I like it. I sat on level three this time. The view, even out of dull windows, was pretty cool. Kinda weird seeing cars on I-95 and not being on the road alongside them. Upon my arrival, at the station, I moved quickly to get to the southbound side to board the busses outside the gate, wading through a thick patch of people on my way there. The elevator was too slow so I staired it, noticing the Palm Beach Lakes area skyline as I walked over to the other set of stairs. A few bus drivers were very helpful and knowledgeable in assisting me in finding the correct route to return to the Northlake Blvd. area. Unfortunately, the driver on the northbound route 1, pulling off at about 5:08 was another jackass. Even more so than the first one. These guys must have the toughest routes or something. Dude not only got at me in a snappy way about inserting my card the wrong way, he answered every question I had about stops at the Gardens Mall with one word answers. Real helpful… Real helpful… Jerk.

Anyway, once I realized the bus had passed the point where I needed to be dropped off to make my trek to Macco and that Macco wasn’t going to wait for me to barge in there 30 to 40 minutes, after hours, past 5:30PM, to pick up my car, I saw clearly that I had only one of two options left to get back to Martin County… The I-95 Commuter Express to Halpatiokee in Stuart. My other option would have been to have a relative pick me up at the Gardens Mall -a slightly longer ride from Indiantown to there. While at the mall, wolfing down a Chick-Fil-A sandwich, I called my mother to pick me up at Halpatiokee Park. She sent my fast-driving brother instead. After a day as long as that one… worked for me!

My ride on the Commuter Express, by the way, was a lot more delightful than my anguishing ride to the Gardens Mall, on route 1, with Mr. Hardass. I say anguishing because number (1) I really did believe, for a second that I could make it to Macco and get my car, but it just wasn’t happening… And number (2) because the driver was a real piece of work with no real value other than just driving to and from. Most bus outfits probably don’t really care about the conduct of their drivers unless it’s racially or criminally offensive, so there’s nothing I can do here. That’s just life. Gotta take the good with the bad and be prepared to anticipate and deal with the bad differently than before. Which I will next time I use the public transit system in Palm Beach County. I’m not the almighty king of mass transit use that I once was, but I catch on quick and if I continue to use the bus and train system, I’ll be a pro in no time...

It’ll be like it was in Tallahassee whenever my car broke down and I had to go back to using the bus… like I never even stopped riding…

Only this time, I will have to enter train use, along with two other county bus systems in Broward and Dade, into the equation…

My ride on the Commuter Express, from the gardens to Halpatiokee, went fast because the bus driver, a lady new to that route, was pretty cool and there was a lady on there riding back to Martin County, who knew the train system inside out. She was a living, breathing train schedule! Unbelievable. She was helped another lady on there, Jupiter-bound, get things right with the bus driver about free passes handed out by employers via Palm Tran that didn’t work. After the lady from Jupiter got off, we continued talking about ways to improve the schedule and about the Kennedy family in the wake of Ted Kennedy’s death overnight. When I got off the bus, about 7:29PM, my brother was right there behind the bus to pick me up in Mom’s car.

Even though I didn’t meet my goal of getting my car back upon completion of repair, me being cheapskate that I am and not wanting to pay an extra day for a rental car, I believe I achieved my goal in saving some extra cash. I’m just lucky that a relative was at the park to pick me up. It would have been nice to have seen a Community Coach shuttle parked in the lot ready and waiting to accept Express tickets as transfers, but until ridership increases on both outfits, it’s may be a long way off. And, it’s clear that Port St. Lucie residents may be a big target of this route. At any rate, its a start. And as with all things, with more awareness comes the potential for expansion.

By the time this post is published, I will have either bitten the bullet and hitched a ride to Macco or I will have attempted to use the Commuter Express again as entry into Palm Beach County. Either way, I’ll be glad to finally be back in my own vehicle for a change! For now, having your own wheels is the only way to fly out here in Indaintown...

The big lesson learned from this trip: WHEN USING PUBLIC MASS TRANSIT, PLAN AHEAD. If I’d left my house earlier, I might have completed my business at school while still making it to Macco in time to at least attempt to see if payment would have gone through for my car. Who knows. In addition, Palm Tran and Tri-Rail don't always coordinate, I assume. While each system performs optimally on their own, taken together, it appears to me to be hit or miss. Your bus either beats the train downtown or it doesn’t. Perhaps a car beats both, after all. Maybe what the SFECC Study Group has proposed, with more localized trains or BRT busses running along U.S. 1 and on FEC tracks, isn’t such a bad idea after all. Until then, after studying Tri-Rail’s schedule further, eventually there’s going to have to be more train trips, a half hour apart, at least, to eliminate the long waits precipitated by uncoordinated bus arrival times.

In conclusion, I think its funny how I've been writing about, endorsing and commenting on mass transit, only to happen to stumble upon using it -on a whim- to supplement a temporary lack of my own transportation. I’ll be back behind the wheel of my car, burnin' rubber, before my next class meeting at PBCC, for sure. But until then, I’m certainly glad I had a chance to experiment with using Palm Tran and Tri-Rail. I has only served to reinforce my belief that having choices in mobility across the entire seven-county region, some day, will eventually help to make South Florida the best place in the world to live, work, study, play, relax and do business...