the bare tree limbs are still iced with snow outside of the city, and the landscape glides by evenly. never having taken a train outside of mass transit¹, it's novel while still familiar. the conductors walk through the cars to take tickets and punch holes through them and announce stops, but the rhythm is the same as the ones ridden underground.

returning to the city at night, it appears as a network of lighted squares assembled into building-like forms, dark on slightly less dark, with the chrysler sliding slowly past the empire state and bridges radiating out. i wouldn't mind taking trains everywhere.