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Comment by guardiangod | Hacker News Reader

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.

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>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.

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