My fascination with the subway started the moment I moved to the city. Taking the subway has become a part of my daily life, a routine ritual that I have come to love. Yes, the rides are noisy, dirty and sometimes long. Yet there is always something exciting to me about rolling around underneath city streets. With rare exception, almost nothing above ground impacts what happens below. It can be hailing, pouring rain or lightning in the world above, but below ground it will always be reliably humid, brightly lit and hail, rain and lightning free.
On a recent bus ride that was departing from a small town out of state, I had the pleasure of sitting next to an older man who happened to be a current MTA employee. He was a very talkative fellow, obviously bored with his daily routine of taking the bus an hour and a half everyday to get to his evening shift supervising subway car repairs in Brooklyn. He was so chatty, in fact, that he didn't run out of things to say the entire trip. My head was spinning by the time we reached Manhattan.
True, I plied him with questions. I wanted to know what working for the MTA was like, who they hire and what the various jobs entail. I put my anthropological training to work, interviewing the man like he was a field source. He was obliging with his answers, holding back neither opinion or fact.
Here are some of the things he told me. I found them interesting enough to pass along to you. I think many people take the subway and MTA workers for granted, when in reality the city would come to a standstill if anything happened to the public transportation system. Knowing a little about how it all works and some 'insider' info can be revealing, to say the least.
Dangers On The Job
Yes, most of jobs MTA employees fulfill are dangerous. While there are a slew of people who have nothing to do with actually working the transportation grid, there are thousands of souls who do interact with high voltage, tons of steel and electrified mechanical parts everyday.
Those who make track repairs have perhaps some of the most dangerous jobs. (It should be noted that the MTA employees who do this type of work are mostly men.) While there are safety mechanisms in place, mistakes happen.
"A worker might hear a train coming down the track he's working on, so he jumps over to the next track over where trains go in the opposite direction. However, a common fatal mistake is to not notice that another train is coming down that track as well. If this happens, the worker will be struck by one train and bounced over to the other train like a basketball, getting slammed back and forth. It always kills them." These words of wisdom come from my MTA informer. It should be noted that every track has a little ledge for workers to hop onto in case of emergency, but often workers simply jump over to the next track if a train is coming. This is how a lot of MTA employees get run over.
Another dangerous position is working in repairs. Mechanics and electricians work in teams of two, relying on one another to keep each other safe. This works when both employees speak the same language. You have to be able to understand phrases like "turn off the electrical switch" or "turn off the gears." However, problems arise when two partners don't speak the same language. A recent influx of Russian repairmen who don't speak good English have caused some recent accidents.
No matter where they are, when working on tracks or cars, employees wear safety gear such as insulated boots. These are designed to help prevent avoidable accidents.
The Subway Routes
I've always been curious about the people who drive the subway cars. Every day I hear their voices over various subway intercoms, ghostly and anonymous, announcing the various stops and that always annoying 'important message from the New York City Police Department' about suspicious packages and random bag searches. While I always hear these men and women, I almost never see them. They're an unknown entity, like ether or aliens.
According to my source, subway drivers don't get to pick their own routes for the first couple of years they work for the MTA. Routes (and other jobs) are picked by employees based on seniority. Those who have worked at the MTA the longest get the first pick of jobs. Those who have worked the shortest amount of time get stuck with the leftovers no one else wanted.
Some train lines are more desirable than others. Long lines, such as the A, are the ones most likely to be driven by the newest MTA employees. Older workers don't want this job, because it's such a long and tedious route. They'd rather keep to shorter lines such as the L, which cover less distance and has more stops.
Getting The Job
Getting a job with the MTA can be a difficult process. You're drug tested (and then can expect to be randomly tested again multiple times after gaining employment), interviewed and must pass a proficiency exam. Mechanical and engineering positions are especially difficult, requiring both experience and a working knowledge of engineering.
My source informed me that there have been waves of varying nationalities getting the repair jobs over the years. Earlier in the century it was Indians, and before that it was those from the Caribbean. Now it's Russians and Slavs.
Cheating on English proficiency exams happens. All foreign workers get tested, but many pay fellow employees off to get copies of exams beforehand. It isn't uncommon to find workers who speak almost zero English working repairs. This causes problems when accidents happen because of language related issues, such as not understanding when a co-worker asks "shut off the electricity" and it isn't done because his fellow worker can't understand what he's asking.
However, it's important to note that many young Americans don't want an MTA position. Or, if they do want a position and get it, they often leave shortly after signing a contract. This is because almost all new workers must work a night shift and put up with dangerous conditions. Many young Americans also don't have the work ethic of their foreign peers. Coming in late to work is not tolerated, nor is missing a day for any reason. According to my new found MTA friend, "you can come in to work, do nothing from 9 to 5, and be OK. As long as you are there on time no one cares. But if you miss a day or are 5 minutes late, you're screwed."
Figures & Facts
None of the following information came from the man I spoke with. However, it's all easily found online at reliable sources such as the MTA's official website.
* The infamous electrified third rail is the one to avoid if you should ever fall onto the tracks. It carries 625 volts of electricity, and will electrocute you or anything that touches it.
* The longest subway ride you can take without a transfer is on the A train, from Brooklyn to the Bronx. It is 31 mile ride. The longest subway ride on the system (with a transfer) is the 2 train in the Bronx to the A train in Brooklyn. You'll end up riding 38 miles of rail.
* There are 842 miles of tracks in the New York system -- about the distance from Manhattan to Chicago.
* As of 2005, there were 468 stations in the system. This includes both above and below ground stops.
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