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When the Job Is One Never-Ending Signal Malfunction


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 24 June 2017 - 08:35 AM

​The New York Times,​ 6/20/17:

When the Job Is One Never-Ending Signal Malfunction

 

 

 

It can begin before the subway even stops in the station. As the operator in the front car slows the train to a halt, the riders on the platform catch his eye and gesture.

 

“You get this,” one operator said recently, mimicking tapping his wristwatch in exasperation. “You get the finger.”

 

And the operators have it easy, locked in their cabins alone. When a train stops, the conductor in the center of the train lowers the window. If there has been a delay, a not infrequent occurrence of late, the conductor effectively braces for impact — with the people on the other side of that window.

 

“My new first name is ‘Mother,’ ” said a conductor — a male conductor — with more than 20 years of experience on New York City’s subway. His new last name is unprintable.

 

Their colleagues across the Hudson River, the conductors on the New Jersey Transit railroad, don’t have it any better. “You’re getting yelled at. You’re getting smart remarks. People don’t want to pay,” said a conductor on various lines servicing northern New Jersey. If someone won’t pay, the conductor shrugs and moves on. “I’m not a bouncer,” he said.  

 

It’s a tough time to work on the rails that move millions of people to and around New York City every day. Subway delays and disruptions have become expected and planned for in one’s schedule, while the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit, two of the nation’s busiest commuter lines, have been dogged by derailments and have warned riders to be prepared for a “summer of hell” as Amtrak repairs deteriorating infrastructure at Pennsylvania Station.

 

Continue here.


Edited by CNJRoss, 24 June 2017 - 08:51 AM.
Added paragraph extending article to LIRR


#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 24 June 2017 - 08:59 AM

Another conductor said she was regularly frustrated by passengers who miss announcements of service changes because they’re wearing earbuds or headphones. “They’ll pull the thing out of their ear, ‘What’s going on? You didn’t say anything.’ ” And they demand answers she doesn’t have. “I’m not a fortuneteller,” the conductor said. “I’m not Miss Cleo.”

 






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