train to New Haven

I take the 9 07 metro north train from Grand Central to New Haven, off peak time, I choose a vagon in the middle, the train is a commuter with rows of 5 seats, there are only 10 people with me.
You emerge in harlem in the midst of what in Britain would be called council housing, sky is grey, temperature is 45 I see on an announcement, so much for the cold winter of new york , it is more than confortable. Few people on the train however the ticket woman made me move my suitcase from the raw of seat across the aisle. She took my ticket and added a signpost to the seat to mark my presence,
Immediately after Harlem she is back to check new passengers, will she be doing that for every stop?
North of Manhattan we seem to travel in what seems to me a urban periphery, trees in the midst of roads, 4 to 10 levels buildings, a cemetery.
From time to time we cross, poorer areas, or what they would seem so. And industrial districts filled with trucks, and cars
Than rows of two, three levels houses starts, in wood and in bricks,

The four lines railtrack runs along a motorways not much traffic, on both directions. Some of the trucks look really like the one in duel. , after 30 minutes we are clearly out of a urban area althouth it is still densely builld, how far are we from the sea? I cannot tell, looking east, one cannot see the sea.
Rare patches of snow here and there remingind the traveller, that 10 days ago there were few days of serious cold. Apart from abeti and some cypressis all trees have lost their foliage, again as a reminder that this is a serious winter area. In fact as we proceed northwards, there a little more snow around.
The train stops often as you would expect from a commuter train.
A strange feeling is taking possession of me as I look out of the window, where are people? Houses and houses, without a light turned on, thousands of parked cars, trees, but no people. It is monday, mid-morning, and there seems to be no one out there. It is like if people on this train, and the few that are getting on and off are the only human beings left over. I spend the rest of the journey concentrating on this. On the railtrack there are for time to time some workers, near stations, then nothing, nobody. Looking further, one man on a bike, an elbow leaning out of a truck-window, a lady walking toward her parked car, other road or rail workers. The train approaches New Haven, in the last half-hour I will have seen not more than fifteen people.