When Rasheta Bunting, a blind woman from Canarsie, takes the subway, she relies on her cane to get to the center of the platform where the conductors’ cab is located. She said the conductors, who pop their heads out of windows at each stop, ensure the doors don’t close on her and let her know if she’s heading in the right direction.
“Having a second person there, they're like your friend in transportation,” said Bunting, 51. “They're the ones that you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you can trust that's going to get you safely from point A to point B.”
In many subway systems across the world, trains are run by just one person. In cities like Paris, some subway lines are fully automated, without a transit worker on board. That’s led government spending hawks in New York to call for single-person train crews as a potential cost-saving measure for the MTA.
But now, Transport Workers Union Local 100 is launching a fresh fight to enshrine their jobs into law. The group is pushing state legislation that would require two-person crews on the city’s subway trains, with an operator at the front to drive and a conductor at the center to make announcements, help riders and ensure everyone is on board before closing the doors.
Stephen Nessen/Gothamist
Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a near-identical bill passed by the Senate and Assembly last year. But the measure’s supporters believe this year could be different. State lawmakers, including Hochul, are up for re-election — and are facing heightened pressure from Local 100, whose contract expires this spring.
“ It will be a part of the contract negotiations and we will fight it back,” said Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen. “We will fend it off and the two-person train crew will remain long after the contract is signed, long after I retire.”
In vetoing the bill, Hochul said requiring two workers on every train costs $10 million a year. The legislation, she said, would prevent the MTA from taking advantage of modern signal systems that allow trains to run automatically. That technology is already in place along the full length of the 7 and L lines, where trains run automatically and operators at the front do not actually drive, but push a button that tells a computer system they’re alert and looking at the tracks ahead.
State Sen. Kevin Parker and Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman are working to reintroduce the bill, and plan to add an amendment that would allow for one-person train crews to continue operating on shorter trains, like those that run on the G line and the subway’s shuttles.
Parker, whose father was a transit worker for 29 years, billed it as a safety issue.
“A machine or computer can't tell whether there's a lady who is trying to get a stroller into a crowded subway train,” Parker said. “If there's an emergency in a station or on a track, a computer is not necessarily built to respond to those kinds of emergencies.”
Representatives for the MTA and the governor declined to comment on pending legislation.
The idea of retaining two-person subway crews in New York was ludicrous to people like Alon Levy, a fellow at the NYU Marron Institute who studies the MTA’s sky-high operating costs and said cities like Taipei that use one-person subway crews are on the “technological frontier."
“Two-person train operations remain a poor industry practice on subways,” said Levy. “New York has serious problems with solipsism and exceptionalism, leading labor to look down on OPTO (one person train operations) on lines much more crowded than New York's, because they think Asia is still poor and Europe is a bunch of tourist villages, as New York slips down the world rankings of subway systems.”
Transport Workers Union also commissioned a survey from the Honan Strategy Group this February, which asked roughly 1,500 people in New York and New Jersey how they felt about the legislation to require two-person crews. It found 61% of the respondents were against one-person subway crews and automated trains.
“ The overwhelming amount of riders in New York City want humans in the system,” Samuelsen said. “They want human workers. They don't want robots, they don't wanna trust their safety and security to robots, to artificial intelligence, to technology.”
Curious Commuter
Have a question for us? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
“I’ve been using the MTA’s Train Time since 2022. Until last month, train conductors only occasionally scanned the QR code for my train ride on my phone. Last month, they started scanning on almost every ride. What is the reason behind this sudden change?”
- Matthew from Yonkers
The MTA ordered train conductors on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North to more aggressively check tickets when it increased the fares on the subways, buses and commuter railroads in January. As part of the fare hike, the agency also tacked on a list of new rules for LIRR and Metro-North riders who use pre-purchased tickets on the Train Time app.
The most glaring change was the rule that requires passengers to activate their tickets before boarding the train to prevent fare evasion. On top of that, one-way train tickets expire the next day at 4 a.m., even if they’re not activated. So it’s likely the conductors are scanning your QR code every time because management wants to be sure every rider is paying the fare.
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We're also talking about...
Potholes. There are a lot of them left over from February’s cold, wet conditions.
“The damage to the streets and roads and highways from a bad winter often don't become fully apparent until the snow starts to melt and spring starts to arrive — that’s when we’ll see the worst of the damage.”
- Owen Gutfreund, a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College
Stoplights on the fritz. February’s storm also wreaked havoc on the city’s stoplights, with salty water seeping underground, causing voltage fluctuations.
Upper East Side shove. Police arrested and charged a Brooklyn man with attempted murder for allegedly shoving two other men onto the tracks at the 63rd Street–Lexington Avenue stop last Sunday.
