To answer your questions noekozz; I started as a bus operator on July 1 2013. I was offered the bus operator position because at that time the mta had a hiring freeze for conductors but they were hiring bus operators so I decided to take the bus operator position to get my foot in the door. I also took the last open competitive train operator exam in 2009 and got a 95 on that. When I originally got the letter in the mail from the mta to start the hiring process for train operator in July of 2013 I had just started training for bus operator so therefore I turned train operator down at first. I had my name reinstated on the train operator exam list in November of last year and I officially got promoted to train operator on April 11th of this year.