SubwayGuy

For classroom either 7am to 3pm, or 3pm to 11pm, depending on what class you get. Weekends off. One you get to "posting" which is where you learn the individual lines, your hours will vary. The other exception is "night ops" during which you will report at 7pm and finish at 3am, that's to practice stops with your instructors as a class during overnight hours.

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but if you score 80 on this exam, you're not getting called. Unless MAYBE if you're a veteran AND get legacy credit for losing a parent or other relative in the line of civil service duty (in which case your overall score would be 90). You should be aiming for 90 or better to have a reasonable shot of getting called. 92 or better to be "likely" to get called. 94 or better to almost definitely be called.

Regardless, get your classmates phone numbers and your TSS's phone #'s if they are willing to give it to you. That way, if you should be delayed, you can call ahead and explain what's going on and why your train is delayed beforehand, instead of everyone getting frustrated wondering where you are, and possibly starting without you / cutting your time / you needing to write a report about being late. Things can still happen...Better to be proactive than reactive.

You can be on schedule without really speeding. That is the importance of making good station stops. If you make bad station stops, then the only way you will be able to be on time is to cheat elsewhere or have your C/R do so. Some people never learned proper station stops, so they have to cheat in other places, and this is the knowledge they pass down. But if you make good station stops, you won't need all that. It is OK to take heavy brake applications, but there is no one size fits all way to make a station stop. Generally, grab a little, feel the train slow down, take more to bring the train speed down properly, give back as you approach the proper marker to smooth out the stop. Don't fan, don't take excessively light brakes (dining car stops), but don't stonewall stop either. The mechanics of what you will do for each stop depend on the station and more specifically the train. You will hear the phrase "adjust your operation" often when referring to trains with non critical defects. I don't like this. You should be adjusting your operation every time you get in the seat of a different train because they all handle slightly differently, and what makes a stop smooth for one may not make a smooth stop on another one, even if they're the same car type. Some people also don't understand taking students is not about showing off, but building their skills in a way that will make them able to handle that particular line when they're on their own. A good trainer will show you lineups, where the various switches go, indicate points you can be turned or rerouted, and how to get back to the line (reroute), or give familiarity with some of the turn moves so that you're aware of them. They will also show you tricky signals, fast stations, hidden stop car markers, and other quirks, and should indicate to you the types of places where there are posted speed restrictions that could result in a radar check since it's easy to miss the signs sometimes. They should also go over the equipment with you to give you a better feel for it, and work on fine tuning your station stops. They're also there to help you if anything should go wrong during your trip, so you don't panic, and to catch you if you make a mistake...such as coming up on a stop marker too fast, they should tell you take more break so you don't run out of the station. Things like that. If someone isn't doing all this, they're not posting you properly. That doesn't mean you can cry uncle and get a repost (unless you feel they REALLY did a lousy job), but if they're not volunteering this sort of stuff you should be asking them questions. Transit has tried in the past to get students assigned to jobs for maximum exposure or where trainers were known to both take students and be good, but sometimes the regular is off, so you get who you get. Just make the best of it.

And as for promoting and moving up, make sure you learn the ins and outs of each title FIRST before promoting. There are too many people moving up who do not even have the basic principles of what the other titles do, and it's disconcerting. The amount of new people I hear bellyaching about not getting a drop while another crew does when a dispatcher knows what he's doing is absurd. The dispatcher has to keep crews as close to in place as possible for future trips, not just give drops to whoever they feel like. The timetable determines who gets a drop more than the dispatcher does. Yet you will hear this sort of thing all the time. Same goes with the amount of Train Operators bellyaching about a conductor doing something they are supposed to, or Conductors bellyaching about their T/O and they've never done the job. Or Train Operators bellyaching about Tower Operators asking for their call letters. Or not understanding why a Tower Operator gets so upset at a Train Operator who responds to a request for a train at XX ball to give call letters, and they're not at XX ball, but generally approaching it, and give their call letters, confusing the tower (hint: you just took a risk at sending him and the train operator and conductor on the train in front of you downtown!) You should have enough familiarity with both divisions, the service pattern, the equipment, and the quirks of each line, and the different RTO titles before attempting to go to supervision. The people who don't generally make the worst supervisors, especially the ones that don't take the time to learn. No one's going to say turn down a promotion, but the ones who don't have that knowledge that only comes with experience need to pick it up in a hurry. As a TSS, you can be expected to take over the operation of a train if needed to, as a T/O or C/R. As a Dispatcher or TSS, you can be asked to operate the tower machine (hint: they all have quirks!) if need be until a tower operator returns from a random, a relief TW/O comes in, or a signal problem is corrected. As a TSS, you can also be asked to run a terminal until, say, a Dispatcher comes back from a random. And as a superintendent, you'd be expected to know the interaction of all the different titles, and be able to assess performance based on the day's paperwork, as well as judiciously handle the fallout from any incident. You can't do that if you don't know what your employees' jobs are.

There is a great George Carlin saying that applies here. "Why do those who know the least know it the loudest?" Remember that when you're sitting in a crew room with so called "senior people." Many of the people making these outrageous claims don't even have that much time, or that much knowledge of what is actually going on, even if you think they do based on how they talk. There are 25-year-idiots here, and there are people with 5 years you'd swear had 20. And there are people with 2 years in title who go around talking like they have 15 who can't stay out of Labor Relations. You can't paint everyone with a brush. Most of the truly senior people in the crew room are completely quiet unless you are posting them. Why? Because they have their papers in their back pocket, and they don't give a darn. Maybe once they tried to help someone that wasn't their student and were told "What do you know, old man?" and decided to keep their mouth shut from then on unless they were getting paid the 2 hours not to. The bottom line is you don't know. Bottom line is, you have to evaluate each person on the job case by case to determine the merit of what they are telling you. If you read the posts I put on here, this is why I routinely say such "not quite schoolcar but really you should do it this way" kind of advice such as never take a shortcut you are unfamiliar with, meaning that if you do, you must know exactly what can go wrong and how to troubleshoot it, as well as to properly explain yourself if you have to in a way that is compliant with the rules, and does not end with you being charged with lying. Why do I say this? Because schoolcar is a wonderful foundation for the start of your career...IF you pay attention, listen closely, and learn what you are supposed to. HOWEVER, it does not encompass every situation you could encounter, nor does it teach you what to say or how to react if you find yourself in such "uncharted waters" when you're on your own. Particularly in regards to dealing with breakdowns, and passenger related issues. Schoolcar does not teach the new C/R to pull their head in after 25 feet of platform observation if they feel threatened by that smirking teen hiding behind a column. It teaches you to call control when you already need to go to the hospital. Schoolcar does not teach the new T/O how to recognize and adapt when the application or release magnet valves on their car are acting up, and the brakes are wonky at best. It teaches you how to call for an RCI after the train has already run out of the station. There are smart, preventative tactics that senior T/O and M/M know that can save you a lot of trouble...they can save you being taken out of service, having to explain yourself, having to go down to 2 B'way...even if it all ends up OK in the end. There are quirks of the road that good senior people can tell you about - hidden hooligans, signals that appear to clear on station time but don't, missing or mislabeled conductor's indication boards, entering greens that don't actually mean all the signals within station limits are clear, invalid signal aspects that are not in your rule book but remain on the road anyway, etc. There are many things that can go wrong with a train too that these people can help you troubleshoot or overcome, that are well within a Train Operator's scope of responsibilities to perform, and they will get you from 1 end of the line to the other. But you have to know who to listen to. Not everything "new" is great. The reason you road post is because no matter how good your schoolcar instructors are, most of them cannot keep up with what is current on essentially 10 types of equipment running on 20+ lines in 2 subdivisions, OPTO, CBTC, and all of the knowledge in work trains and flagging all at the same time. Which is the curriculum a schoolcar TSS is considered qualified to teach, to both T/O and C/R, at any given time. This is the reason you post. Probably no one in Transit is capable of providing that info, and if someone claims they are, RUN AWAY. And RUN FAST. The best people to teach you a particular area are the ones who work that area all the time, which is why you post. Your most important survival skill as a new TA employee is the ability to distinguish between someone who is full of shit, and someone who is trying to help you. Regardless of time. Anyone who says "stick to schoolcar 100%, don't even learn anything else" is scared, probably new, and will never learn anything else that can help them in their career. RUN. These are the same terrible human beings that when they get promoted to supervision, quickly become common crew room names. The TSSs that can take a C/R out of service for forgetting a tie, and cause a terminal abandonment, but they can't get a train with stuck brakes moving during rush hour. The Dispatchers that will cut your time for being 1 minute late when the trains were running late, then demand you to make an extra trip when you clear on a penalty job, which they wouldn't have needed you for if they hadn't insisted on running an "extra" interval on a 5 minute headway at 11pm, using up their WAA crew, when they would have needed that extra train later in the night anyway. Likewise, anyone who tells you to disregard something important schoolcar taught you, RUN. These are the people that can't stay out of trouble. The ones who tell you where it's "OK" to speed. The ones who tell you to challenge certain timers. That no one will notice if you key an automatic. The ones who tell you that full service is the only position your train should ever be stopped in, or that it's OK to leave the key in the MDC, or close both sections at the same time. Or that no one ever looks at the black box on new tech trains. STAY AWAY. But, anyone who provides additional information that builds on the principles that schoolcar taught you, give it a listen. It might help you someday. You also might never need it ever. But learn who to listen to and who to tune out. When I see blanket statement posts like I'm reading up above, I see people that aren't learning the difference and that's bad. Because knowledge that's forgotten by retiring people won't be passed down and will be lost forever, and someday you will have students and need to teach them, and you won't have the knowledge that the best of your predecessors had. Transit wouldn't bother posting new students if they thought everything they needed to learn could be obtained from schoolcar. Remember. That.

Once you get the hang of the 3 trains (the 62s), you will see they are some of the best equipment in the system. Fast trains with good brakes. Take difficult equipment as a challenge..."if I can operate this well, I can operate anything well". Only train left in the system you can fly into a station at 40 MPH and make a smooth stop without ever grabbing more than 40 lbs. of brake, or having to brake way outside the station. Just sayin. Road ops is the time to play around and practice that sort of thing, not when you're posting or on your own. Those were some of the most fun times in schoolcar. Enjoy!

Remember, just because those were the questions on "his" test does not mean those will be the ones on yours. Anything is fair game (including audible and hand signals). Expect a mix of write ins and multiple choice. You must get all of the multiple choice right. Write ins, there are certain things you can write for each that will automatically disqualify you, but if you write what's in the rule book you will be fine. If you write something that is unclear, or has more than one interpretation, you will be summoned in to explain your answer verbally, and you had better give the right answer verbally. Just learn the definitions the way they are in the rule book, and understand the types of signals and how they interact or are related to each other. Don't overthink it, don't worry about "oddball" signals you may see in the field that seem to not fully conform exactly to their definitions...just write the correct answer. By the time the test rolls around, it should be like reflex anyway. When you see a signal the first sentence of the definition should already be in your head without even thinking. If it's not, you need to study more. And that's OK, you still have time to do that.

Yard and Station Switching is much more than just car washes. There are lots of things that fall under the umbrella of what a Train Operator does in the yard. -Cuts and adds -Bringing "inspections" into the barn -Bringing "OKs" out of the barn, and building them into trains -Car washes -Transfers and equipment swaps -Drilling out "hold" cars that the barn wants to keep in the yard -Building trains for AM and PM service -Put ins for AM and PM service -Layups -Relaying trains at turnback locations And of course, any one of these can involve moving bad equipment, or equipment with damaged or inoperative components, and knowing how to do so safely. Odds are that during YX, you will only see a fraction of that (depending on location, the supervision present, and who the senior people are in that location). Which is why it's so important to learn as much as you can since when you come out on your own you can be asked to do any of these things if assigned a yard job on your own. During YX, you can expect some measure of babysitting, but that's not a bad thing. Just come to work every day prepared to ask questions and learn. As for "dealing with RCC" in the yards, it can happen. Just because a yard job says yard doesn't mean you don't have to go down the mainline. You may have to take a train to a different location (via the mainline) to wash it. Put ins, layups, and transfers definitely have to go via the mainline and therefore must deal with RCC upon encountering any situation where RCC must be notified. Being "YARD EXTRA" doesn't mean you are not qualified to go down the road. It means only that you are not qualified to take passengers.

248. First day you will get your pass and go over benefits, as well as other mandatory non-title-specific training (equal opportunity, violence in the workplace).

Varies depending on A or B Division. Full training is (now) I believe 9 months for the B and 7 months for the A. You get starting yard rate during training. Upon completion of training, you progress to starting road rate. Upon completion of 231 "road" days (aka operating trains in passenger service), you progress to full road rate. As for bags, there is no one size fits all answer. Find one that is durable and works for you, and go with it. You will need to carry - tools, escape mask, safety vest, flashlight, rule book, radio, PPE (gloves/glasses)...with you at minimum. So make sure you can fit all of those things plus anything else you may want with you (water bottle, duct tape, space for snacks, spray deodorant for foul smelling cabs, etc.) in whatever bag you go with. Best piece of advice is go to the store where you're looking at bags, and take a good look at a few to pick the one you want.

2nd day typically. You will either all be going to one division, or, if the class is to be split, you will choose in seniority order (your seniority is determined by your list number on the exam).

Yep those crack me up. And they can't fix the first thing that goes wrong with the train... ...calling for the RCI because the train bucks when they release 30 pounds from the station and wrap it up all in one motion...

No offense, but you won't be officially a Train Operator until you complete schoolcar. Take nothing for granted, you still have to get through a second signal exam, a final exam, and a road practical at minimum. Use the YX time to continue studying, ask questions, and learn things at every location you go to. Take notes too since you will probably not remember all these places and their ins and outs. It's a lot, but you have to take ownership over you're learning. You are going to see a lot of things that aren't in the rulebook (talking about places that have quirks which your rulebook doesn't explain to you). Try to write these down and remember them. There is an instinct of many newer people to fight these quirks ("that's not how it's supposed to be, that signal is messed up then!"), but people have been fighting these battles to no effect for decades before you - it's better to note the quirk somewhere you can have it for reference, and make sure you remember it when you come back on your own so that it doesn't trip you up. Good luck and make the most of YX. And remember when you come back that every answer you put on a test is "by the book" not by what you see in the field.

Not on this forum I don't... But if you look on Page 81 and Page 83 (in Chapter 3) of your Rulebook... ;D

It doesn't help because people assume. "I saw the yellow, I know what it means (proceeds to repeat entire definition word for word)...I slowed down, I just DIDN'T SEE THE RED UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE!" is a common thing to hear. What does Transit hear? "I saw the yellow, I know what it means but I failed to comply with it since even though I slowed down, my train was not under control. I then ran the next signal I was supposed to be prepared to stop at because I didn't have my train at a safe enough speed to react to it safely upon seeing it." End result? Charges, and lots of them: BIE-signal overrun, collision (if signal was red due to a train in front), improper train speed (if signal was red due to failing to clear a timer), improper operation, poor train control. If it's a home signal add Near Miss incident, and if the homeball was protecting a switch set against you, you can expect to also be charged for a switch run through regardless of whether or not you actually fouled the switch. That's just the way it is down here. New people need to understand the mentality here is always COVER YOUR ASS.

Don't waste time trying to meet up on your days off when everyone lives miles and miles away from each other and has different schedules. Get to class early, or stay late with your classmates. This is the best way to do it. Once you've been to all the locations and begin to repeat them (aka everyone knows how to get there) it's easy to work it out with a few other like minded students in the class and say hey, let's just get there an hour early tomorrow so we can review before the class starts. Seconded. Good advice.

There is a big issue (BIG) with new T/Os operating like hotshots. I've seen it, read some of the reports, and even experienced it firsthand riding other trains in the course of my days. There seems to be a mentality among many that yellow means next signal is red, fly up to it and stop. No. A red signal is not like a station stop. It's ok to creep and crawl when you pass yellows. A lot of newer people are concerned about being late or falling behind, yellows/reds is not where you make up time. If you're late, blame it on the train in front of you. You need a different mentality about that than the one you need about station stops. Lateness that falls on the crew is almost always a result of slow running (ie going 25 MPH with all green signals in front of you and no speed restriction) or bad station stops (long/drawn out/lots of braking and releasing) which is the T/O fault, or excessive station dwell time which is the C/R fault. Anything else is not your fault. When you learn the lines you'll be able to tell for yourself when someone is being a cowboy. Want to avoid signal overruns? Learn the handful of signals in each division that can really trip you up. Memorize them, and how the signals before them will look when they're red. Seriously, it's not that hard. It's only probably about 10 of them in each division. Hooligans in stations that are red but not preceded by two yellows (only one). Hidden reds that are hard to see. Reds that are very close to the yellow in front of them. Timers that clear WAY off from the posted speed. Once you do that, just respect the yellows and you will be fine. Passed a yellow? OK to do 10 MPH until you see the next signal isn't red. That way, if it is, you can stop. Timers, until you know how they clear, approach at a controlled speed that allows you to stop between the yellow and the red. If you can't see the red, assume it's hidden behind a signal box 50 feet behind the yellow that you do see. Don't trust the signs, and always do lmuch less than what the sign says. If you follow those 2 simple paragraphs you should never hit a signal. The definition won't save you in those cases, and that's where most new people go wrong. Book learning vs. practical. They are focusing on book learning however, because you still have people misinterpreting certain signals or unaware of the definition. I cringe every time I hear someone who isn't on the L line asking for permission at a call on...

starting pay: 31.87 / hour which is "yard rate". Will go up when you complete schoolcar to "starting road rate" (don't have this # off hand). After 231 road days, you progress to top pay which is 33.83. As previously mentioned, a raise is scheduled to go into effect on January 15, so your pay, whatever it is, will go up by 2% at that time. Medical benefits kick in the first of the month that follows 90 days of service. Meaning if you're hired January 15, 90 days would be around April 15, so your benefits will start May 1. Night diff applies to every minute work between 1800hrs (6:00PM) and 0559hrs (5:59AM). How much depends on the pay rate currently in effect for you. For train ops at full pay it's around $1.50 an hour. It's not a lot, but it helps. It also applies to all hours worked on the weekend (between 1800 hrs Friday and 0559 Monday morning).

Very good. Try to keep your sick time usage down too. They do look at that. When you're name comes up to be promoted, try to have at least half of the sick time you have been allotted since you were hired in your bank.

You have the gist of it down, but I caution any soon to be called outsiders or new hires who are using any simulators or video games (especially the teens obsessed with the damn BVE...that shit is not realistic at all, nor does it have any correlation to how you will do on the job) - and that even includes the simulator at Livingston St. There is no substitute for doing it in the real world. Things can happen out here in the field, and you need to be ready. Stick to real world practice and reviewing the notes you get in schoolcar from your TSSs.

There is a high fail rate because a lot of people at this point in the exam (and this is no knock on you guys, this is a knock on those not posting to forums, keeping interest in it etc.) did not score well and some of them are lucky to have even scored that high at all. There is also an entitlement attitude among many of the newer employees - TA tells you that you have to walk tracks, TA tells you that you have to work all tours on all lines in your subdivision, and at various locations yet they complain about it. Also some people refuse to open a book and study, and some refuse to get experience to get their hands dirty. Schoolcar is both book learning and experiential/operational. If you can't do both, you will have trouble down here. You also need to separate things. Sometimes new employees are shown a safe shortcut. But if that is not the procedure, that is not what you do when you take your practical, nor is it what you answer a test question with, nor is it what you tell your instructor or the person doing your evaluation. Regardless of whether or not you will ever do it or not. Some people really can't keep things separate. Some people also learn by repetition, if they're not the ones asking to practice, say, cuts and adds 15 times in a row until they have it down pat, they're going to keep forgetting it every time they don't do it for a few days until they get their reps in to the point it's committed. So if you find down the road that you're that person, make sure you work it out with your instructors and get your reps in. You, not your instructors, ultimately have to take responsibility for your learning down here. Unfortunately many (not all) of the recent hires are unable to do that.

Correct. If your previous title would be "back to the street" and you get sent back to your previous title, you can figure out the rest. That said, don't do that. The folks downtown will discourage you from doing it also. They will tell you to defer appointment to train operator to until you have completed bus operator probation. In rare cases, this may mean waiting beyond expiry of the current T/O list and having to take the next test. But even in that instance, at least you know you'll still have a job once you pass bus operator probation.

OK here is THE final definitive answer (again) since people are still going back and forth about this issue. As PATCOman said, you can be hired off an open competitive C/R list and and (later) an open competitive T/O list, and have it be treated similar to a promotion. If you don't like it, fail a signal exam, can't stop overrunning stations or signals, or otherwise decide or are forced out of the T/O title, you absolutely 1000% have the option of going back provided you do so within your first year as a T/O, and that you passed probation as a C/R before you accepted appointment to T/O. This is all covered under RULE 9B in the first chapter of your rulebook, read it. There is only once circumstance where promotion may actually backfire on an employee. It is difficult to explain but I will try. That is when the following happens: -Employee in eligible title takes a promotional exam (#1 we'll call it). -Employee in eligible title takes a second promotional exam (#2 we'll call it). -Employee accepts promotion from exam #1 to new title. Their previous title was eligible for exam #2, but the new title they gained by being promoted from exam #1 is not. -Employee is called from exam #2. In order to accept promotion to the title from exam #2, they must first accept an on paper demotion back to their original title since their new title from exam #1 is not eligible to promote to the title from exam #2. In this exact circumstance, if the employee resigns or is demoted out of their title from exam #2, they would be ineligible to return to the title earned from exam #1 since they would have to return to their "previous title" in such an instance. Case in point: Conductor takes the tower operator and train operator exams. Gets promoted to train operator, then called for tower operator. Since train operator does not promote to tower operator, if this person decides they want to be a tower operator, they will have to accept an on paper demotion back to conductor to go to tower operator. If they don't make it as a tower operator, they would then go back to conductor, and cannot go back to train operator. The only other situation where someone can get hurt taking a promotion is if they do not complete probation in an eligible title. Case in point: Cleaner promotes to conductor, then is hired open competitive as a train operator before completing conductor probation. If they can't make it as a train operator, they would go back to cleaner, not conductor, since they never completed probation as a conductor. REMEMBER: These rules are specifically designed so they don't discourage people from taking promotions. However, the promotional lines must be adhered to at all times, and you must pass probation to establish permanent status in any title.

If you are in schoolcar, they will likely have you come in the Sunday before Thanksgiving (instead of being off that entire weekend before), give you the holiday off plus Friday/Saturday RDOs, then resume you with weekends off the following week so that you will get a four day weekend. However, they may or may not still do this but it's something that used to be commonly done, because the instructors in schoolcar also enjoyed having time with their families. If you have not worked at least 30 days with Transit, however, you are not entitled to be paid the additional 8 hours for a holiday. Otherwise, you will receive the additional 8 hours pay for the holiday off.