Inside Look at a Subway Conductor’s Job

You might see subway conductors every day, but have you noticed that they point up at a striped board when the train pulls into each station?
Inside Look at a Subway Conductor’s Job
An MTA conductor on the 1 train answers a question from a passenger. According to an online Q&A by an anonymous conductor, answering customer questions is one of the conductor's responsibilities. (Ivan Pentchoukov/The Epoch Times)
Ivan Pentchoukov
10/19/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/conductororiginal.jpg" alt="An MTA conductor on the 1 train answers a question from a passenger. According to an online Q&A by an anonymous conductor, answering customer questions is one of the conductor's responsibilities.  (Ivan Pentchoukov/The Epoch Times)" title="An MTA conductor on the 1 train answers a question from a passenger. According to an online Q&A by an anonymous conductor, answering customer questions is one of the conductor's responsibilities.  (Ivan Pentchoukov/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1796109"/></a>
An MTA conductor on the 1 train answers a question from a passenger. According to an online Q&A by an anonymous conductor, answering customer questions is one of the conductor's responsibilities.  (Ivan Pentchoukov/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—You might see subway conductors every day, but have you noticed that they point up at a striped board when the train pulls into each station? Did you know that separate crews operate the numbered (1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7) lines and the lettered (A,B,C, and so on) lines? An anonymous subway train conductor answered this and many other questions in a thread on social news website, Reddit.

“We’re pointing at the conductor’s indication board, which is a zebra-striped sign. If the sign is in front of my window, it means that the entire train is on the platform. They don’t trust us to just look, so [the] required procedure is to point to it at every station before we open the doors,” he wrote in an answer to the question about pointing up.

According to the conductor, there are strict policies against distractions, such as newspapers and cell phones. Employees caught using a cell phone or reading a newspaper can be suspended or be relegated to station duties.

A user asked whether the conductor has seen mole people, a group of people believed to live in the city’s abandoned tunnels.

“I haven’t seen them in person, but I have seen some “dens” in the tunnels, nowhere near stations,” the conductor answered.

Ever get cut off by the closing doors just as you are about to get on the train? Turns out the decision to wait is completely up to the conductors.

“There are some stations where, if I wait for everyone, I will literally never be able to close down, so I try to close at the first opportunity where I can do it without catching anyone in the doors,” the conductor wrote.

Also mentioned was the conductor’s starting pay, $20 per hour, while some senior conductors make over $100,000 a year.

“They are at top pay, work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day and have no life outside of work. The average senior conductor makes about $65K a year,” the conductor wrote.

The MTA could not confirm the salary figures by press deadline.

Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the MTA, said that most of the information provided by the person in the online thread is inaccurate.

The online user posted a photo with his MTA vest, badge, and train car keys to verify his identity.

Ivan is the national editor of The Epoch Times. He has reported for The Epoch Times on a variety of topics since 2011.
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