beanz

You aren't wrong...I'm not saying it isn't unfair either...I'm just saying that it's what's allowed and i can't knock em for taking advantage of the system the way it's set up.

He paid for the test and has certain rights afforded to him by civil service law. I agree that it isn't fair to people waiting but this isn't a team sport. He(or she) have to do what's best for them within the limits of what they are allowed to do. When u come down here there may be a personal situation that causes u to have to resign the job, God forbid, but you'll be grateful for the right to be able to come back up to twice more if necessary.

You can reinstate your name up to 3 times as long as the list is active. I know people who quit midway through schoolcar and were given the same option. Civil service law.

Schoolcar is definitely rough when u live in the Bronx and end up in the B. I live in Riverdale and if i didn't drive i would have the longest shittiest commutes to Coney island, Pitkin yard, east NY (🤢). But honestly since i been out on the road the crew office wasn't that mean to me. A couple times on board i ended up going to stillwell and once even to far rock and another time to bay ridge.....but for the most part i was at Bedford park, 207, 168 or 145. B division is easier to get through probation but there's more equipment and lines to learn about and more yards to get familiar with. A division is a little more tight assed but there's less trains and lines to learn. Really just comes down to being closer to home because the less u have to travel in schoolcar the more time to get rest and study.

What's your list number?

Just come in to start the process and the transit doctor will put u on hold themself.

I feel u...for me personally it would work great to do some 9pm to 5am type of tours so i can take my kid to school, sleep while she's there and then pick her up and hang out before going in to work. Other than that i don't want part of PMs at all lol.

I wish they had later PM jobs that started at 8 or 9 but none of the jobs I've seen go past 6pm start time on the PMs. At least not on the lines i look. Would work out great for me if PMs went that late.

Depends what job u get assigned. Jobs can be anywhere from 8 hours to almost 12 hours. U can also have a couple days where u are on board meaning u don't have a job until they send u somewhere. Those days can go as short as 8 hours if u get assigned a job right away or it can be twice that.

The reason u get different answers is because it depends where u land on the totem pole. Some people are lucky like the February 2021 class and land pretty high on the xx list. One of my classmates has midnights with sat sun off which is what he wanted. They were lucky they landed in B division which was extremely short of people. If you end up coming in while transit is short like they did, naturally u will end up higher on the extra extra list and have a little more consistency. Its a different story for those getting hired now. There are already a good fifty to a hundred people in front of you in each division on the extra extra list because of the hiring frenzy. You won't be switching tours or RDOs every week, but it can happen. The inconsistency comes in start and end times. You might stay PMs for as long as you are XX and you might even have preferred it, but PM jobs start anywhere from 12pm to 6pm and that's only because they have eliminated 8pm board time which was just mean spirited. The job starts out tough but it def gets better. Just have to really ask yourself if it's worth it.

What kind of route guides did they add? The little pamphlets from 2013 or did they make something new?

Some get lucky like that. Ive had my tours changed but not super often. RDOs more often but not all the time either. Just depends on how short handed they are and where they need people most.

Toughen up when u get here. Don't take everything TSSs or whoever say too personal or it's gonna ruin your schoolcar experience. Most of the TSSs in schoolcar are good guys, i should know since I've been through it twice and have had nearly all of them for at least a day. They are humans just like us trying to do a job. Some of them have tempers and some of them can be very snobby and sarcastic, but nobody's expectations of you should be higher than your expectations of yourself, so their opinion of you doesn't matter. Let them have their ego trips and their soapbox tantrum moments and let it slide off your back and get to work. Once you finish and are out on your own, you will rarely if ever even see them again. Once again like i said, most of them are alright. Don't worry too much about other people and develop a tougher skin and you'll do fine.

There are 2 bids per pick. A pick usually lasts around 6 months. If u get forced to xx after the 1st bid, u can still bid again which is what happened to me. After the 2nd bid, however, there is no 3rd. So if at that point u get forced back by a returning TO, u have to stay XX until the next pick.

I won a bid and the person came back before i worked it a single day 😂. I start another this weekend and I've heard through the grapevine this person won't be coming back for a while 🤞

Haven't been around. Just wanted to check in and report that as of 2 days ago i am off probation finally. Most of our small post COVID induction that remained should be off probation as well.

The way it works is every week of the year has a set amount of TOs that can take it off. Vacation is picked by seniority. Week of Xmas, week of Thanksgiving, and summer weeks are usually first to go. Then any weeks where school is out like spring break and mid winter recess. If there are 2 weeks available in a row that u can pick, then yes u can take them both in a row. Assuming u have the full 2 weeks by then.

They accrue during but you get them in one shot in May for the sick days and October u believe for the vacation days. U also get AVAs which are holidays, those get banked as they happen as long as u choose to save them instead of getting paid for them. Some u automatically get paid for unless u save them using our automated phone system. Taking them is another story n too complicated to get into here. I took 2 AVAs durint a certain portion of my Schoolcar training so it isnt impossible.

Yea sorry but it's gonna be very difficult to take a summer vacation in your first year unless it's a short 5 day getaway. The way vacation time works down here is very complicated and sucks but gets better with seniority. U might still be in training next summer and definitely still on probation. I had to miss a vacation to my home country(DR) while in Schoolcar and my wife and kid went alone with her family. This job asks a lot of u in the first few years but it gets better and that's what keeps me going.

Just don't go on a bender the night before work and you will be fine, that's what I tell people. U can have a few beers with dinner the night before and it's not gonna make u fail a breathalyzer unless u decide to have 24 of them and come into work still twisted 😂

Not unless there's a general order that takes out a section of track for work.

Extra list is something different. When u start, if there is a vacancy in both divisions, the members of your induction class with the higher seniority numbers will be asked which division they choose until the vacancies close out. Once you are in a division, u will go through Schoolcar and once u pass and are out on the road, u will be extra extra in that division, which means u don't have a set schedule or job assignment. Extra list is something u can choose to be when u have time and are able to pick. The difference between extra extra and extra list is that when u are extra extra, your tour and days off can change whenever they want to change it. When u are extra list, u don't have a job assignment but u choose your tour and days off and nobody can change them. So extra list will not apply to any of you for a couple of years at least and extra extra won't apply to you until u have completed Schoolcar.

Nah u will be one division or the other not both. I would pick the B since u are in Brooklyn. Once u pick a division u can't transfer to the other until u are able to pick a job or unless they draft people to the other division because of need, as has happened in the past.

A division if u live uptown, B division if u in queens or Brooklyn. Also, A division is faster, shorter trains and platforms, much more supervision and the big rookie mistake over there is station overruns because the IRT(A division) used to be 5 car trains. They expanded the platforms just enough for 10 car trains but most of them are tight so your train control has to be 100 percent on point. And oh u have 6 months out on your own before you are off probation. B division, lots more to learn so Schoolcar is longer, or at least supposed to be..they have been condensing it to rush TOs out. Trains are longer and bigger and not as fast because they are so heavy, platforms are a lot longer, more tower heavy so u have to learn areas of control and a lot more lineups. Less supervision out and about and RCC can't see u at all times like they can in the A. If u don't mind traveling, my suggestion to a new person would be go to the B. Sure there's lots more to learn, but I've been in both and i feel like as long as u are on point about your lineups, probation will be a lot easier to get through. B division makes better train operators and I'm saying this as someone who has now experienced both in a very short amount of time as a new person in both.

Congrats. Anything u have at home. I wouldn't buy a new pair just to have to put them to the side. They should know u have to wait for them