RollOver Posted June 30, 2015 Share #1 Posted June 30, 2015 Conductor Apologizes For Taking F Train Hostages To Park SlopeBY NATHAN TEMPEY IN NEWS ON JUN 30, 2015 11:10 AM This F train conductor was not eager to explain himself after carrying rush hour passengers four stops without an opportunity to exit. (Ben Smith) A crowd of rush-hour commuters got a rude surprise yesterday evening when, stopped at Jay Street-MetroTech, the conductor of their F train told them it would be running express, then drove off without opening the doors, carrying hundreds of weary souls to Park Slope. The rogue F train pulled into the Downtown Brooklyn station shortly after 6:00 p.m., and came to a complete stop. Three Gothamist reporters were on board and heard this announcement: "Due to the lateness of this train, we will be running express to Seventh Avenue." For local stops, the conductor instructed passengers to get off and wait for the next F. Ben Smith was headed to his home in Bedford-Stuyvesant after an afternoon in Soho, and needed to transfer to the G at Carroll Street, so he moved to get off, as did many others gathered near the door, staring through the windows at a platform lined with people gathering to board. Then came the chilling announcement: "Stand clear of the closing doors." "What I’d expected was that, as he’d claimed, they would open the doors and we would be able to get on the train that was coming behind him," Smith said. "But since he never opened the doors we were basically all held captive there." True to his word, the train carried us past the next two stops, up and around the bend of the Culver Viaduct, the beauty of the view of Gowanus sapped by the fact that we were taken against our will. Then we were back underground, and by around 6:20, at Seventh Avenue, where hundreds of us disembarked to begin to undo our surprise trip to Park Slope. Team Gothamist, now running late for a 7 p.m. baseball game on Staten Island, walked off into a crowd of angry straphangers, dozens of whom took the opportunity of passing the conductor's window to give him a piece of their mind. As Smith recalls, some accused the conductor of being high or drunk. In a video Smith helpfully provided, a few people sum up the mood of the entire train with these choice statements: "Why the hell didn't you open the doors? I'm late now!" "Look where we at!" "Something wrong with your brain!" F Train Surprise Express by Gothamist The conductor looked dazed throughout the several minutes that people berated him. At one point, he pulled out some sort of ID to show those gathered around, and said, "I'm sorry," then stopped speaking altogether. Smith said he couldn't speculate as to whether the conductor was intoxicated, but said, "He obviously wasn't paying attention." Smith would like to see an official investigation of the snafu. An MTA spokeswoman said she did not have any information on the incident, but that she would look into it. We will update if we hear more. — with Emma Whitford Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted June 30, 2015 Share #2 Posted June 30, 2015 He looks like he needs a good shower. His shirt looks insanely dingy. Disgusting. Some of these guys are unbelievable. There needs to be a new system implemented regarding seniority. Some of the best express bus drivers I get are actually fillers, while some of the nastiest are full-timers. I have a very nasty guy on the BxM4 whom I'm determined to get rid of. Going to keep filing complaints until they fire that guy. Absolutely disgusting. Extremely rude and unprofessional. I had a similar incident on Sunday with no apology. Get on his bus after he almost bypassed me, then had the nerve to tell me that he didn't know if he was still on detour when the Gay Pride Parade was going for at least another four hours and then took a different detour than the one that was announced, forcing to get off at a completely different stop and miss my connection. I said to him how do you not know if you're still on detour? Then he goes on talking about how sometimes they don't tell them anything on the radio. I gave up to avoid an argument and said "ok fine" and walked to my seat, but it had to be the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a while. I reported him when I got home later for his rude attitude, as he had the nerve to mumble under his breath as I went to take a seat. As for clueless conductors, I've had one like this guy on the . I wonder if he was the same guy. lol We pulled into 59th street on the local track. We see a across the platform and everyone is ready to make a dash for it. Then we hear that we'd be leaving first and going express, so people stay on the train. Then more noise over the loudspeaker as the crew try to sort things out. After much back and forth, the doors close only to find out after we pull out that we're going local. Talk about a bunch of pissed passengers. People got off cursing at that guy and rightfully so. It's bad enough when you have passengers that are clueless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3F Posted June 30, 2015 Share #3 Posted June 30, 2015 Eh, I was once on a train that didn't open its doors at Carroll Street (going Northbound). I think the people outside on the platform were more miffed than the people inside, because nobody tried to get off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted June 30, 2015 Share #4 Posted June 30, 2015 Eh, I was once on a train that didn't open its doors at Carroll Street (going Northbound). I think the people outside on the platform were more miffed than the people inside, because nobody tried to get off. People make mistakes but sometimes it's ridiculous. The main issue is that some of these guys just don't communicate and it's amazing that they don't have the foresight to understand this. This should be common sense. No one should have to be trained about communicating when there are changes to the regular route. It's partially laziness too. I'm pretty sure they are trained about these things anyway, so it's really inexcusable. They are paid quite well for what they do (and don't do for that matter) and they should be expected to perform accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3216068E Posted June 30, 2015 Share #5 Posted June 30, 2015 Yeah last night was a really messy commute that T/O might get suspended for this he should of open the doors at jay st Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttcsubwayfan Posted June 30, 2015 Share #6 Posted June 30, 2015 Yeah last night was a really messy commute that T/O might get suspended for this he should of open the doors at jay st The T/O is not the conductor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RollOver Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share #7 Posted June 30, 2015 I don't know why the C/R didn't open the doors at Jay Street-MetroTech after he told everyone on the train that it will/was skipping Bergen Street, Carroll Street, Smith-9th Street, and 4th Avenue-9th Street. Obviously, he likely forgot. Still, he should have paid attention. Whenever the dispatcher, tower, or whoever in charge within the reroutes the train to local or express or another line, the C/R should have open the doors and make the announcement about the reroute. Judging by the video where the crowds were obnoxiously cursing and berating him, I could tell he was really apologetic. Hopefully a mistake like that won't happen again. The C/R should always open the doors as soon as the train comes to a complete stop unless told not to. There are indeed rare times that you will see a mistake in mass transit. Sure, it does seem ridiculous to many, but nevertheless, still a mistake. I remember a different incident on an R32 train during the morning rush back in the early summer of 2014 last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted June 30, 2015 Share #8 Posted June 30, 2015 I don't know why the C/R didn't open the doors at Jay Street-MetroTech after he told everyone on the train that it will/was skipping Bergen Street, Carroll Street, Smith-9th Street, and 4th Avenue-9th Street. Obviously, he likely forgot. Still, he should have paid attention. Whenever the dispatcher, tower, or whoever in charge within the reroutes the train to local or express or another line, the C/R should have open the doors and make the announcement about the reroute. Judging by the video where the crowds were obnoxiously cursing and berating him, I could tell he was really apologetic. Hopefully a mistake like that won't happen again. The C/R should always open the doors as soon as the train comes to a complete stop unless told not to. There are indeed rare times that you will see a mistake in mass transit. Sure, it does seem ridiculous to many, but nevertheless, still a mistake. I remember a different incident on an R32 train during the morning rush back in the early summer of 2014 last year. lol@rare times... Hardly a "rarity"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RollOver Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share #9 Posted June 30, 2015 Sigh, fine. There are indeed rare times that I myself will see a mistake in mass transit. Better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3216068E Posted June 30, 2015 Share #10 Posted June 30, 2015 The T/O is not the conductor. My mistake it was a typo I'm on this website with my phone and I use the words already on my keyboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowblock Posted July 1, 2015 Share #11 Posted July 1, 2015 I've made that exact same run a bunch of times when I used to work the on weekends. I always make PLENTY of announcements with the doors open at Jay that due to construction all Coney Island trains would run express to 7th Ave and then Church, and at those stations you can take a Manhattan-bound back to bypassed stops. And EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME I got a whole platform full of people acting like it's MY fault because they weren't paying attention. I'm willing to bet the same thing happened here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pakenhamtrain Posted July 1, 2015 Share #12 Posted July 1, 2015 Gee I'd dread to see the reaction if people had to put up with what Metro does down here. It frequently alters trains which are running late from Stopping to all sorts of express patterns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHV9218 Posted July 1, 2015 Share #13 Posted July 1, 2015 I've made that exact same run a bunch of times when I used to work the on weekends. I always make PLENTY of announcements with the doors open at Jay that due to construction all Coney Island trains would run express to 7th Ave and then Church, and at those stations you can take a Manhattan-bound back to bypassed stops. And EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME I got a whole platform full of people acting like it's MY fault because they weren't paying attention. I'm willing to bet the same thing happened here. I doubt they just outright lied in the article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted July 1, 2015 Share #14 Posted July 1, 2015 I've made that exact same run a bunch of times when I used to work the on weekends. I always make PLENTY of announcements with the doors open at Jay that due to construction all Coney Island trains would run express to 7th Ave and then Church, and at those stations you can take a Manhattan-bound back to bypassed stops. And EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME I got a whole platform full of people acting like it's MY fault because they weren't paying attention. I'm willing to bet the same thing happened here. While there are plenty of inept passengers, employees aren't exactly exempt from being incompetent and make their fair share of mistakes as well. With the employees I find that most of their mistakes come from workers that are immature and too busy being preoccupied with other things instead of with their jobs, like reading the newspaper while they're working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricknologist Posted July 1, 2015 Share #15 Posted July 1, 2015 My assumption is that it just so happened that only 1 car failed to open. The article makes it seem that the entire train or at least one section did not open at all. Could he have noticed a single car failing to open? If the issue occured a few cars away, I doubt it. A late = crowded platform, plus all the people that got off to take the following train could've obstructed his view of the problem. If he didn't open train-line or one section, believe me, the people waiting @ Jay would've let him know about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FamousNYLover Posted July 2, 2015 Share #16 Posted July 2, 2015 I was once on at Inwood-207th St when C/O closed door without train engineer, but once C/O realize he open door. For moment I thought was going to operate without train engineer. I also get lots of nice drivers on , NICE or Bee-Line Buses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobtehpanda Posted July 2, 2015 Share #17 Posted July 2, 2015 I doubt they just outright lied in the article. The Gothamist and its sister sites aren't exactly known for quality reporting. With their tendency to exaggerate it's basically the online hipster version of the Post or Daily News. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowblock Posted July 3, 2015 Share #18 Posted July 3, 2015 I doubt they just outright lied in the article. You muat be new to gothamist. That blog has less journalistic integrity than the NY Post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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