Why would a train be stopped on the track?

Ugh, trains. Why are they always stopped? Seriously, it’s like a cosmic joke sometimes. I remember this one time, I was rushing to catch a flight – a really important flight, for a family wedding, no less – and the train just… died. No explanation, just a complete standstill. Turns out, there was a bird on the track. A bird. I’m not even kidding.

Trains get stopped for all sorts of reasons, I guess. The obvious ones, like switching cars around – you know, like those giant, metal jigsaw puzzles they play with. Or inspections – gotta make sure everything’s running smoothly, right? Makes sense, even if it’s infuriating when you’re running late. Then there’s the weather. Remember that blizzard a couple years ago? Trains were practically frozen solid for hours. I was stuck on one for, like, four hours, listening to everyone’s increasingly frantic phone calls. Didn’t even get to my aunt’s house in time for the cake cutting!

But beyond that? It’s a wild west out there. Vandalism, apparently. Who does that? Seriously, messing with a train?! That’s some next-level mischief. And of course, there’s the whole infrastructure thing. I read somewhere that – and I could be wrong about the exact numbers, it was some article I skimmed – a significant portion of train delays are due to track maintenance issues. Old tracks, I guess, or some kind of problem with the signals. It’s never simple, is it?

So, yeah, next time you’re stuck on a train, remember – it could be a bird, it could be a blizzard, it could be some mysterious infrastructure issue. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s just a bad day for trains. And for everyone on them. Like me, that one time, missing the wedding cake. The best part, too.