I have been riding the Metra for over five years now, and not once have I ever put my bag next to me on a busy train to try and deter other people from sitting next to me. I have also never asked someone to move their bag until this morning. My morning express is like most other express trains, jammed. There is always that one jack ass that decides he is too good to have someone else share the two person seat and usually I will go out of my way to not strike up any conflict. I have gone back three or four cars looking for a seat in the past, but something was different this morning – I finally had enough.
We are all adults. The seats on the bottom level are two seaters, not one. So this morning there was only one seat on the bottom of my car with only one person in it, but his “$19.99 Father Day special briefcase” was sitting next to him. At first I walked past, but then thought, “my god this is ridiculous” so I walked back and said “can you please move your bag so I can sit down?” and after a few huffs and puffs, he moved it. Get over it. I am now going to seek these people out 😉
Lesson for all your Metra riders: if you do not want to sit next to anyone, go to the upperdeck with the single seats, especially on packed trains.
