"Jus' Push the Door Open, Man!"

This is what passes for customer service in the minds of MARC\MTA\Amtrak\Union Station employees. This was the response when I approached the moron (or MARC-on) seated behind the desk in Holding Pen B and suggested that the automatic doors were not switched on, could he, as a paid employee of the....of something, please switch it on.

First he didn't understand what I was talking about. Then he insisted that the doors were working properly (this assessment he made while seated behind the desk next to a young lady he was entertaining). When I insisted that they were not, in fact working, that all he had to do was get up and move a switch, things got testy. At least one of the Union Station Holding Pen B fixtures witnessed the exchange.

Finally he relented, admitted the doors were switched off and said: "Man, just push the door open; just push the door open!" He kept repeating this, while disdainfully shaking his head. Well I gave up and went back to the door, pushed the fake "Push to Exit" button glued to the wall, then muscled open the door using the finger pull mounted on one side.

Once on the other side I watched as passengers struggled with the door. Petite women or women with their hands full (as people who actually work for a living find themselves), men and women with disabilities, senior citizens who struggle to get through thin air had to wait as other passengers pushed or pulled the door open. I watched small children nearly caught as the hydraulic-press-like door easily closed on them after an adult had gone through.

We are not asking for miracles from you morons. We are just asking for a little respect.