March 2006 / Train Ride / 1 of 3

On friday, there was a delay of some sort in the afternoon, and the train that I was traveling on ended its journey prematurely at Utrecht, about 30 minutes shy of Amsterdam.

It was 5pm, and so the station was very crowded. The platform from which the next amsterdam-bound train would depart was quickly filling up, a platform several hundred meters long.

My habit is to wait at either end of the platform. From where I was waiting, I saw a man come up the stairs, led by a healthy looking guide dog. I watched the man & dog. I thought about what the dog was assessing. I realised that the dog was determining the situation, much the same as the hundreds of waiting commuters were also looking around and making observations.

The man and the dog wandered off towards the far end of the platform. The first train to Amsterdam came in to the platform, and as masses of people bustled towards the doors.

I decided to wait for the next train.

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