Neimas

The crew office has been good in the B div and A div they getting better. If you live in Bkyn or Queens in A Div you will see the 7 Line a lot.

I guess the crew office disliked my name or something because I lived in brooklyn while I was XX and they kept me on the 1 and 6. Started getting the 7(one of my least favs) more often towards the end of the pick and rarely got anything out of brooklyn. Took it all in stride though. Just looked at it as me taking my rookie lumps.

The 2 is one of those lines thats will made or break you. Look foward seeing you down the road a Brownhornet and questions in box me.

 You need a maniac conductor to consistently make your time on the deuce. lol

I went down for final processing today, start school car on the 28th. Yes, there are 40 T/O's per class.

Went down today and it went fast was there for about 5 hours and then got the start date. The next class is on the 28th and they seem to be moving fast. But it seems like it's one class a month right now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations to both of you. The 40 T/0's will break down into 4 separate classes. They actually ramped up the amount of T/O's they are bringing in per month. There were only 30 of us and 40 C/O, I think, when I came in. Broke down into 1 B Division and 2 A Division T/O classes.

    

Yessir!!!!! The 3 Line is the best line in the A Division in my opinion. Not too long, not too short. Good express run. And don't forget the equipment. Those 62s on the 3 line are the best damn trains we have in the A div. Especially the modified ones that are smoother now. Anybody who says otherwise just can't handle them. If you want that beast to stop, it will stop. Come into a station doing 40 at the plat and that baby will stop on a dime. Those new techs will have you overrunning stations. It will be a long time coming before I pick away from the 3 line. Only downside is getting stuck behind a 2 constantly. It's like they operate slow on purpose over there lol.

Exactly. I plan on picking the 3 as long as it's available to me. And yeah that deuce will jack up your waa and lunch for real.

I heard School Car has am & pm classes? Can someone please clarify the times?? Do you work overnights, weekends, & on holidays???

Yes, school car does indeed have am and pm classes. Unfortunately, you do not get to decide which one you want. AM one is like 7:30am~3:30pm and 10:30am~6:30pm. PM's are 3:00pm~11:00pm and 7:00pm~3:00am. These are the times you are with the instructors. Once you go to the yard for yx you work the shift of the job you are given. You will receive overnights(midnites) shifts once you leave your instructors to learn the yard and road operations. While in school car you will have sun-sat off. You may get a holiday off while you're still with your instructor but I don't think it's guaranteed. I think I remember getting Memorial Day off but not July 4th. Or we may have gotten both. Not sure. But like anything else in transit all of this is subject to change. Especially the times you meet with the instructors.

@Niemus I ain't never scared!!! I welcome the challenge! I'm loving this experience. I heard about those ECAMS on the 62's as opposed to the 62A's. I heard those 62's stop where you want them to. Once you keep holding what you got. Well I still can't wait to operate them. Right now it's yards, and S/S for us.

You will find yourself stopping short a lot and having to do the "rookie roll" early on when trying to wrestle with those 62's. As Subwayguy mentioned, their brakes are ridiculous. Gets easier of course as you gain experience but some folks just don't want any part of them. They are indeed unforgiving. However, they have been refurbishing some of them and those are much smoother.

Huh, yeah ok wait till you pounding the road in a 62 with a  poor working a/c in the summer or heater in the winter plus no back support while you operate then tell me about how you prefer a 62 over a 142 lol.

Don't let em scare you Brownhornet! lol Yeah the 62's can be a little rough on you especially the ones on the 3 line(my favorite line at the moment); those make you work. I tend to switch between sitting and standing on them to alleviate some of the aches you get from operating them. Nothing like coming into a station busting 35mph standing up, taking a brake without having to adjust it and watch that mofo stop right at the marker. Then open your window and look out like a boss. Hey you have to fun with it or your day will drag and you will be miserable.

Man, you just reminded me why the 142A is my favorite equipment to operate. I'm thinking about submitting a G2 to go back to the A now....

Meh, give me a 62 any day. I have more fun on those. New-techs put me to sleep. ZZzzZZzz...

And the 188's are terrible. I like to be able to switch hands so they don't get fatigued. Impossible on those. They did it because in the future when the 7 line goes CBTC like the L line you won't need the controller. But in the mean time it's very uncomfortable.

Good to see they're moving (relatively) fast. I wonder if there's a push to hire by year end? Or a need to hire more people due to system expansion?

 

Anyway, I will take RTOman's advice. I'm sure there are people from transit reading these forums. Hopefully they understand that we're desperate for info about job opportunities and to learn about the job itself. Everyone says things they might regret.

People are retiring like crazy this year so, like RTOman said, they need bodies something awful down here.

If you worked for another City Agency,no 21 page booklet for you.

Ah ok. Thanks much cosmo.

Good Q! I wanted to ask that when I took my second D/T.

I didn't get 21 page booklet either.

But they saw that I work for another City agency. Maybe that is the reason.

Your friend works in the private or public sector?

Thanks for the prompt reply LeonDoub. Yes, he has worked for at least two city agencies over the past 10+ years-- ACS and Dept. of Buildings(current).

Question for the people who recently went for the DT. A good friend of mine just went down for his but he told me he didn't recieve the 21-page booklet to fill out his history. I remember getting mine the same day of the DT, allowing you the time to fill it out while your waiting for your call back. Did this process change as of late? Thanks in advance.

One of my friends who is Schoolcar was told about that by the TSS he couldn't believe it! It's happened a few times down here.. BTW that TO didn't have a lot of time but enough to know better..

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Which is one of the numerous reasons why you walk your train before you move that sucker. Even a quick walk through would have prevented that.

Thanks again RTOMan!

I'm just trying to see financially what am I looking at in the very beginning.

Many companies spend minimal resources on training time. I thought it would be 35 hrs a week. I can see it is not the case with MTA.

Evidently - Great company!

NYCT spends thousands of dollars training just one T/O. So yes, they invest a lot into schoolcar but they have to. You aren't getting trained to sit behind a desk all day. You, along with your c/o are in charge of some very expensive equipment and of course people's lives.

A Division does 6 months in schoolcar with 3 of them being in the yard like RTOman said. B is longer due it being the bigger of the two divisions and it has more equipment to learn. Overall it's little more complicated while A is much more straight forward.

And as for vets f'ing up, all I have to say is--- 15 cars in passenger service.

How much are union dues a month? And when do they start taking out union dues? Thanks...

$27.06 every two weeks starting with your first check. Yeah, they do not waste any time.

TWU Local 100 will make it firmly understood to you that they have your back from your very first day, but not to the FULLEST extent they say. That's what the union representative said. I take this as you basically better not screw up in front of any TSS's that wanna write you up, or get any customer complaints or get banged in. New conductors are basically taught to bang in T/Os that overrun stations or are constantly making hard stops, or wait until or remind the T/O to call rail control, otherwise it's both your asses. I hate it.

On your very first check you get hit with union dues, about 27 bux.

Exactly. The best way to counter that is to always pay attention to your operations at all times. When the job starts to become "easy" it becomes harder to stay focused and much easier to make a mistake. Oh and get your REST. I can't emphasis that enough. The job becomes torture when you are dead tired.

Just curious, does the MTA give a psychological?

No they don't. I believe their MABSTOA(buses in Manhattan and the Bronx) division gives a, what they refer to as, a Boss test which I think is sort of like a psych test. They really should start requiring one though. You should meet some of the nuts they allow to operate trains down here.

Postal1, thanks for the info. Yeah from what I have read on here school car is no "walk in the park". What PopsicleXGirl said also gives a lot of hope to many of us still waiting to begin the process. I guess they put people on hold for various issues and if they have the luck to resolve them they get reinstated and that would tend to slow the process a bit. I went back into the archives and this time last year they were at 300-400 list range. Meaning that in one year the list has moved about 1300 names. Not bad. I hope the trend keeps up. We'll keep hope alive.good luck to all waiting and to those already in school car.

T/O school car is really not that bad. While it is something that should be taken very seriously because it can lead to a good career don't let it psych you out. If you dedicate just 30 mins a day, more if you can, to studying you will not have any problems with school car. You know what they say, "It's only hard if you don't know the answer." I really think some people get off on spooking potential hires/rookies. Yes, some people flunk out but that is to be expected when you are dealing with a pass/fail situation. But some just decide it's not for them due to the crazy schedules or once they realize how physically and mentally taxing "pounding the road"(operating in passenger service) can be. And a few who come from another title, say bus operator, never have any intention of staying any way. Because they can go back to their previous title they look at school car as a sort of 6-9 month vacation.

Question for anyone on the job or in schoolcar: do you sign on to the payroll when you start your shift or do you swipe in at a timekeeping machine (ie, Kronos)?

T/O's and C/O's sign a payroll. The dispatcher for the terminal or yard you are reporting to has it. During school car your TSS will have it with them.

I was told today in school car that the next class, may 20th class, will have another 50-60 T/O's in it(mine has 50-60 as well). If you have a high list number i wouldn't worry too much because, like others have stated, they are flying through the list. Chances are you will get a shot.

Thanks for all the info provided guys. It was very helpful.

And to anyone who is scheduled to go down to Livingston for DT, like a few already stated, get there as early as possible. I got there at like 6:30am(before they even opened) and waited in the lobby. The women who opens up the office comes in at 6:50ish but trust me it's worth the wait. You can just go up with her and you will be among the first 5 or so to get a ticket; ie you will be among the first 5 to LEAVE. For your group that is. There are others at the hr office for various things but among the pre-hire DT folks you'll be the first out of there. I think i was ghost by 10:30am. Same applies for final processing. They say expect to be there all day, which you should because you never know what could happen, but if you get there early you can be out by noon.

list# 73X

DT- 4/10

Final Processing- 4/22

Class- 4/29