Since I moved to Quincy, I have been riding the T to work regularly. Here are my impressions

Pros:
- 9 times out of 10 I have been able to score a seat. The orange line always has available seating. The red line is usually packed leaving Downtown Crossing but a ton of people get out one stop down, South Station
- People really do offer their seat to the elderly/infirm.
- Seating guilt. I'm fine with standing the whole way home. The first time that happened, it killed my back and knees but I have adapted. Sometimes the seated person I am standing in front of, offers me their seat.
- Knock on forests of wood, I have only encountered one major delay/disruption on my commute. It was the red line and there was a dead train somewhere that delayed everything about 20 minutes. Of course, there are the daily signal problems or schedule adjustments but those aren't too huge, just a couple minutes delay.
- I have been able to make every train that I have been running for thanks to conductors actually looking out their windows.
- An awesome variety of reading material. I'm an over the shoulder reader. I've seen people reading books from Nora Roberts to John Steinbeck. Last month I saw someone reading Steve Harvey's book. I got very confused and amused. Also, it was hilarious seeing a bunch of passengers reading the Metro article about T safety while we were stuck at North Quincy due to a dead train ahead of us. Last Friday, I swear I caught a passenger reading porn with a pseudo literary title.
- Awesome views. I love the the sea, the rainbow natural gas tank and Umass Boston. It's probably because it evokes childhood memories. Seriously, I spent about half my childhood in Quincy and at Umass Boston.
- I love the classical flautist at South Station.
- NOT DRIVING! I absolutely hate commuter driving. It stresses me out and builds into road rage issues.

Cons:
- Back in the day, people knew that on the T, you take your backpack off and put it at your feet. Nowadays? No one does that. I can't count the times I've been pummeled by some clueless backpacker or entire cars have to squeeze passengers in the area around the doors because a backpacker won't move down to the middle of the train.
- iPods have just created more clueless meandering passengers. I'm sure it's fun to pretend that your life is a movie and you have your own personal soundtrack but can that movie please avoid the scenes where you bash into me or people scurry past you since you might accidentally shove one of us onto the 3rd rail? A backpacker with an iPod? Pure carnage.
- the Downtown Crossing guitarist who fills the tunnel with his awful B.O.
- the natural gas reek of the New England Medical Center stop (I hope it's natural gas... or do I?)
- Men sitting like they are on a barcalounger while women huddle next to them arms and ankles crossed. Guys, I know you have wider shoulders than us and have balls but can you pull yourself in a little bit?