Today I came to get the 8:31 train bound for Kawasaki and the retardedly over-secure gate system screws me over once again. If I got aboard that train, I could have reported to work by 9am. Looks like I'm gonna miss it.
This is what happened. The Nambu line, which this railway line is called, splits the town in two. There is only one entrance to the station, and for people living on one side has to cross the railway line to get there. And we happen to live on that side. There is no overhead bridge to cross the railway line. So we can only cross the line when the gates are open.
The thing is, when a train comes from Kawasaki (A) direction, even though the crossing is past the station, the gates close and we have to wait for about 2 minutes till the train leaves the station and then actually you can cross the line. It is not that bad when the train comes from the Tachikawa (B) direction because the station is past the crossing. So when the train passes the crossing, the gates open.
So today, I came to the crossing at around 8:27am. There was a train coming from Kawasaki direction and it hadn't even arrived at the station when I got to the crossing. I don't know where the trigger point is located, but it is pretty fast away from the station. The train arrives at the station few seconds later. Then I had to wait till everyone got off the train and for the train to leave the station. We were all good up to now, because the train I was supposed to take was still far away. But just a split second before the gates opened (because the train bound for Tachikawa left the station), the train bound for Kawasaki reached the gate-close-trigger point. Goddammit! So I missed the train!!!
