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Conductors at every door sounds bizarre to me. I ride the Metro North commuter rail into NYC on occasion and when it pulls into the station all the doors open and you get on or off.

What's the deal with this in Boston? Do the doors not have automatic opening hardware? Are they checking tickets on entry instead of walking down the train and punching them at your seat?

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It's the lack of automatic opening/closing hardware and consequent safety issue of passengers potentially trying to enter or exit a moving train. Also, for most doors some stops will have raised platforms and some won't. Passengers opening and closing the appropriately-named "traps" themselves to switch between level exit and stair exit would be hazardous.

Sounds like they still run steam-powered.

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