Erin

Erin is a daily rider. She catches the same train every day and sits with the same people. Occassionally though, on a Friday, she’ll have worked all her hours before 5 and leaves the office early. “That”, she tells me, “is when you meet the really interesting people.”

Like this one time when a 14 year old kid made a pass at her. And then got off the train at her stop. And followed her to her car. And then said the funniest thing he could possibly have said. “Pop your trunk, I’ll throw my bike in.”

This is now a secret phrase at my house. Yes, it means what you think it means.

Alex Barber

Alex Barber rides the train every morning, just as he has since he was a sophomore in high school. He rides from near his parents’ house in Sandy to where he catches a bus to Salt Lake Community College in West Valley.

“I like riding the train”, he told me, “It’s a free ride plus I never have to deal with traffic.”

When I met him, Alex was carrying a sketch pad that he told me he uses in class. He’s 18 now and a first-year architecture major.

Alanna

Some commuters are talkers. Others are watchers. Alanna is a reader.

Alanna didn’t want me to use her last name. In fact, she didn’t even want to give me her last name. But she did seem flattered to have her portrait taken… as long as she could be left alone to read the latest Twilight book without too much chit-chat.