Matthew Rascoff's dashboard

To the Caltrain customer service department,
This is a complaint about the conductor in the last car of the northbound train that arrived in San Mateo at 3:57 on Sunday, July 20, 2008. I unfortunately did not catch his name.

Not being from the area, I erroneously brought my bike onto the last car of the train, rather than the first car. I tried to walk it to the correct car, but found it impossible to navigate the narrow aisle. So I leaned the bike against my seat, with sufficient clearance for other passengers to pass. When the conductor came by, he immediately started yelling at me. I calmly tried to explain that I had made a mistake in boarding the train, but he would not stop for a moment to listen to what I had to say. He called me an "idiot". When I said I was not from the area, and did not know when I boarded which was the right car for bikes, he said "even a Martian would have figured that out".

He told me to walk to the vestibule, which I did. When we got to the next station, he forced me off the train, threatening to call the police if I did not. But he refused to hold the train so I could walk to the front car on the platform. Moments after I got off, the train started moving again, and I was not able to get on. I ended up cycling to the next BART station, wasting my Caltrain ticket.

I am dismayed by the unprofessional and rude service I received and I request that this conductor be reprimanded and the cost of my ticket be refunded.

Sincerely,

MR