"Slippery Rail Conditions"

So I subscribe to to NJ Transit alerts, which is kinda comical in that the point is to keep passengers up to the minute with important info especially when there are delays (which is all to often) and I normally get them a good 5-10 minutes AFTER I learn of any said delays while standing in Penn- side note: thank you to CleverCommute.com for their fantastic communication system- I rely on these MUCH more than I do NJ Transit alerts.... I digress... Today I get an email from NJ Transit with a link to their site for their alert about "Slippery Rail Conditions". It basically goes in to detail that with leaves falling with the change of seasons and the cold weather approaching passengers should be warned that there "could' be delays. They even go into a scientific explanation of how when the leaves fall and are crushed (their word, not mine) by the train wheels it creates pectin which is "an oily residue" that does not allow the trains to keep their grip on the tracks and will render them unable to climb up steep grades. I don't know if I should be thankful for this heads up OR frustrated to know this will inevitably be a new reason (excuse?) for making my commute even longer... then again, it will be nice to hear a different reason than the overused ones like "congestion" or "at a stop signal waiting for a different delayed train to pass" or "due to downed wires, we're being held... thanks for your patience". These annoucements have become the white noise of my commute along with that guy who assumes just because he is in a tie and cuff links we all want to hear him on his cell dissecting his schedule for the day with his poor assistant who clearly got in at the crack of dawn... seriously dude - it's not even 9am... the cuff links don't make you that important! side story-- (yes, I tend to go off on side stories that relate to the original story, but I feel deserve a quick mention) when I used to take a different line (Montclair-Boonton) one of my "train friends" (you know, the people you are buddies with for that 28 minute ride in the morning but probably never see outside of a train car? HI NICK, ROB, MARC and GREG!) told me that one time an especially loud passenger was on their cell and was leaving his number for the person on the other end to call back. So my friend took down the number and woke up in the middle of the night to call this guy -- I believe the convo went something like this:

loud passenger: ... "hello?"
train friend: "yah, how do you like it, being distrubed?"
loud passenger: "what?"
train friend: "no one wants to hear your conversation on the train in the morning so keep it down"
CLICK

BRILLIANT!

So... in summary... watch out for slippery tracks, subscribe to CleverCommute.com and when on a train (day or night) please keep in mind everyone within earshot would rather not know your business so please keep it down :)