I have been doing some research on this for a while… since I began the new job search back in July. Locally we have an Amtrak train station that goes down to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. It looks like a pretty simple and straight forward way to travel down there and you can purchase a monthly pass to use the train as well. The train stops a few times along the way, so if the train ends up working out, Maria and I could POTENTIALLY find a new place somewhere close to a station on the way and cut my time down even further… OR I could just drive at that point. But that is fairly far in the future and I’m not gonna worry so much about that. ANYway according to the schedule it looks like  I’d be getting up a bit earlier and coming home a bit later… I have no problem with that because I see the time on the train being a little more relaxing and giving me more time to prep. I’d be able to get online if I got a WIFI card or went through my phone or just nap if I really needed to… though I doubt I’d ever be that comfortable by myself to do that. So according to Amtrak, I could potentially leave at 7:00 or 7:55 and get into Philadelphia around 8:30 – 9:15 respectively. If I’m lucky enough to find a job within walking distance from the station I won’t have too much else to worry about. If not I may have to look into the subway system in order to get me from point B to point C. Assuming that I would work a 9-5 the morning schedule could work out pretty well. Coming home would be another scheduling hassle. Depending on what time I would be able to leave its a very solid possibility that I wouldn’t be back in town until close to 7pm and then would have to drive home. Currently we aren’t all that far from the train station which makes this idea even more tempting. I think I could handle the schedule especially if I was getting paid better than I am now. The positions I have viewed so far look like they pay pretty well and would cover any extra expenses I may incur.

One of the largest expenses I think that I would encounter with this would be the monthly pass I would want to purchase. Currently the unlimited monthly price on a ticket is $253. Now this seems like a ridiculous amount of money to pay at first but after taking a minute to analyze what I would be paying in gas alone… Now that we have somewhat stabilized the gas crisis and we’re not paying $4 a gallon (and hopefully we won’t have to) I find that I’m spending about $20 to fill the tank. Driving back and forth to Maria’s friend’s house alone kicks about 1/4 or more of a tank and that’s not even right downtown. Last time I drove down for an interview I had to stop on the way home to fill up so there is definitely a good bit of gas being blown on each trip. I figure I will be refilling the tank every couple days spending around $50-$60 per week. Multiply that by 4 weeks, sometimes 5, and you are looking at a monthly gas expense of $200-$240. Add in wear and tear on my car and the 160+ miles per day that I would be putting on it if I drove, my mental anguish, parking fees downtown, etc… and you can see that the $253 a month for a train pass isn’t so bad after all.

So now the only thing to do is put this theory into action. We shall see how that works out!

Oh yeah, by the way… the title, some people will recognize it from The Simpsons as none other than Mr. Ralph Wiggum. “Yes, Ralph, I choo-choo-choose you.”