During my daily commute from Downtown Berkeley BART to the Montgomery BART station, I'm under a strange impression. Whenever the train car pulls in to an intermediate station between my desired point A to point B, the train driver verbally announces the name of the station and the ultimate destination of the train over the intercom. Once, I had the feeling that it was the train itself that was talking to me, rather than its conductor. Think Thomas the Tank Engine. Thus, each train had its own personality by virtue of how its intercommed voice sounded.

Sometimes I have an easy-going chillax train that's as cool as a fox, as long as his mechanic oils his tracks well. We'll call the train "Col-train":

[[ Cue a low, slow, raspy soulful voice ]] "You're noooow arriving at 12th Street Oakland / City Center. This is the traaaansfer point for all Fremont-bound passengers." [[Train closes its doors and slowly hums along the rails. ]]

Some trains are always rushing to meet their deadlines, posted on digital schedule signs that hang from the ceilings of every station. The signs are narrated by a station intercom, whose voice has an uncanny resemblance to Stephen Hawkings' voice-synther. The hurried trains have an air of urgency about them. Let's call the train "Guarana", after the stimulant of the same name:

[[ A quick beleageured spastic voice ]] SAN FRAN MILLBRAE MILLBRAE! [[ DOORS SLAM. BUZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Hums quickly along. The sound of rattling train car doors. ]]

And there's always that train that makes you late for work. (Sorry, Tor.) Her name is "Vapid," which describes the contents of her cranial cavity (or lack therof). Oh, only if the first letter of your name was replaced with "R." Maybe then you'd feel compelled to live up to your name, but how you fail so miserably!

[[ A jumpy train that jolts and jerks uncomfortably. ]] This is the, uh... Passengers!... Transferring to the... We'll be waiting for the, uh, train ahead of us to go before we move into the Embarcadero st... patience. Thank you for it. The patience. [[ Scatterbrained. Voice of an older lady. ]]

The hour-long commute to GameSpot is facilitated by a number of cars, each with its own distinct personality. Which ones have you met?