T on weekends = useless

First, though, let me rant for a while about how horrible the public transportation system up here is. Every Sunday I've tried to use it so far, it has failed me. When I went to Christ the King's morning service three weeks ago, there was some kind of maintenance going on along the line and they made us all get off at a station, board buses and be driven to the next station, then go get on another trail -- in effect skipping a link in the rail system at the expense of at least 20 minutes added time to the trip. I should have been early but wound up 15 or so minutes late, and that's even without getting lost like I usually do when in a new area for the first time.

I decided I'd see how the drive into downtown was, which meant I was going to Citylife Church's morning service since they have parking available at the hotel garage. Well, I did that the previous two weeks and neither attempt went great. I learned that the GPS is hopeless among tall buildings, as it can't keep good enough satellite contact to reliably track me through the city streets. So, yeah, when I really need it to work, in the middle of downtown with streets flying by and no familiar landmarks, that's when it craps out. Wonderful. The first time I showed up a half-hour or so after the service started and so I had to kill time in Boston until the evening service -- not necessarily bad but I'd have rather gone to church in the morning and had the rest of the day left uninterrupted to explore. Last week I miraculously arrived in time for the morning service but had an awesome time crossing a few bridges and burning a few gallons of gas before finally getting out of the city.

So, having decided to put driving to rest for a bit and give the T another chance, I made a second attempt to ride the subway out to Christ the King for the morning service. And, what happened? A repeat performance, this time due to a different section of track being out of service which would have resulted in a longer delay than last time. Running a little tighter for time this morning, and disgusted with yet another unexpected setback thanks to the T system, I just got off and hiked to Citylife's service instead of trying to continue the journey out to Cambridge. So that's a perfect 2-for-2 now with me planning to ride the T only to get rebuffed by unexpected maintenance. One would think they'd at least post a sign at each station, or at least the end station, about the maintenance, but no. I guess that'd make things too easy to figure out. Who knows.

I can't help but wonder why people elsewhere seem so high on Boston's public transit system. I guess it's necessary on weekdays just because traffic is so bad, so maybe it's one of those things that shines a little brighter when compared to the alternative. But on weekends it's anything but reliable. Washington's Metro was far better I think. I can't remember ever getting kicked around like a soccer ball while riding that, and the trains and stations are even cleaner, hard as that is to believe. Here some lines branch outside of the city, too, so I can be on one train and have to get off and wait 15 minutes at the station for the next train to come so I end up at the right end station. In case it's not obvious, I'm not impressed.

Unfortunately, transportation, including mass transit, could weigh heavily on what church I eventually decide to start attending full-time. Among the two I've visited, one seems preferable in some ways (has Sunday School, probably older and less college-ish congregation, slightly more traditional) but is all but out of reach due to the lack of reliable mass transit combined with the lack of ample parking space nearby, and the other hasn't been too bad and is more convenient for driving and downtown stuff but one I've felt very much like an outsider in during the few times I've been. It's a heck of a way to choose a church, but it seems that my decision may already be made on the basis of accessibility alone. One thing that could work in my favor is Citylife has a classical service early on Sunday morning and that could actually be the best one of the lot, but the early start time has been an insurmountable barrier to my attendance so far. I suppose it might also be time to broaden my church search to include not just PCA churches but whatever remotely reformed congregations I can locate in the area.