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Comment by asdff | Hacker News Reader

NYC subway is basically a situation where the horse stable owners got their industry codified into the law. For example, there is a pension earning position on each train that is merely responsible for closing the doors, because this was needed with the technology of the time a century ago, but the transit workers union has ensured this good paying job will not be eliminated now that we have came up with ideas to solve the operator closing door issue (like a platform mirror). Now labor costs are twice as high for no good reason to run a train, since NYC subway needs to run them with two people while other transit agencies can run them with just one, or entirely autonomously even. Chances are there are a lot more positions like this, completely vestigial at this point, adding to overhead, but to be preserved seemingly until the end of time so that no one is told the bad news that their job no longer exists.

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I know about the duo-operators in MTA. Before I came to NYC I didn't understand it either.

After I moved here and saw how violent and hostile people are towards the train, I actually came around on the duo-operations. If MTA doesn't do that it's likely many many people will be crushed by the doors, and you'd get a lot of broken trains.

I never saw as many riders actively breaking the train doors in eg. Japan/HK/DC/Seattle/SF subway.

>If MTA doesn't do that it's likely many many people will be crushed by the doors

Train doors look ominous, but are designed in a way to not seriously harm a human in a way.

Not the ones in NYC. I am telling you they hurt a lot more than ones say the Yamamoto Line's. I know people who got deep bruises from them.

The MTA train operators will aggressively chomp the doors closed on passengers attempting to hold the door for their friend or squeeze themselves into an already packed train.

That said, the NYC subways have far bigger issues than passengers getting bruised from aggressive door closing. Problems that don’t exist in many other countries.

Like slashings. Or being pushed onto the tracks in front of a train.

I still don't understand why that takes a separate job. Most other subway lines the operator does this too, even barks on the PA and sounds an alarm over the problem door, as well as has an internal camera they can switch on to see inside the car, but you don't need a second staffer because by definition the operator is no longer driving while doing doors at the station. MTA on the other hand has decided it needs to pay at least one person to sit and do nothing at all times during the train operation: the train operator who does nothing while the door operator futzes at the station, and the door operator who does nothing while the train is traveling.

That reminds me of the SNCF train workers in France who are retiring at 52 because of the "dangers" of operating the trains (from when they had to shovel and breath in coal to keep them running). The fact that they can shut down so much of the country when striking has made it very hard to change.

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