$215 doesn't seem so bad anymore

As many of the readers know, the first of the month is the time when you have to pay for your pass to ride the train for the next next month. Way back when gas was $1.50 a gallon, it seemed like a whole lot of money to spend $215 for a month's worth of train rides from Michigan City to Chicago. Now that gas is at least $3.19 a gallon, it seems pretty reasonable all of the sudden.

I was thinking about it, and to commute today, would take almost a second mortgage. I live about 60 miles away from where I work. Our new car gets about 30 miles to the gallon of gas, so that would make 4 gallons to go there and back. Today that would cost $13 alone. That isn't counting tolls if you take the Skyway of $6.60 for both ways, and the $15-20 cost of parking in most areas of the city. It could cost right about $40 to drive into the city for a day of work now. If you figure doing that about 20 times during a month, you are looking at about $800 in cost as a commuter.

I never though I would look at the South Shore as a good thing, but wow, dispite the muggles, it is a deal right now to ride the train. Not to mention you all would get to meet cool people like me ;)

(now where is my paycheck for being the PR director at NICTD???)