Is an MTA conductor a sucky or fun job?

[Dred]

I can't really find any information about this job. 

 

Could someone give me an idea about how the job is? Is it physically demanding, is it boring, is it exciting?

 

Most of the people tell me, who have no idea about the job, say its a crap job and you won't like it. They say you will be in a tiny little booth and standing the whole day. This is all I have to go by because I know no one who actually works for the MTA.

 

 

Thanks, any insight into this job will be appreciated. 

[SevenEleven]

This job is what YOU make it. It will suck in the beginning while you're on the extra list. Not having a schedule, not knowing what you're doing can be a drain but if you really really want this job, then you'll do whatever it takes to get it and keep it. You'll make the sacrifice and once you learn how to work it, it'll get better. It can be stressful, demanding, boring and exciting all in the same day.

[Nyctransitorhotels]

9 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

This job is what YOU make it. It will suck in the beginning while you're on the extra list. Not having a schedule, not knowing what you're doing can be a drain but if you really really want this job, then you'll do whatever it takes to get it and keep it. You'll make the sacrifice and once you learn how to work it, it'll get better. It can be stressful, demanding, boring and exciting all in the same day.

You are going off what exactly? You are on the list with the rest of us? 

 

It's a good question. Do you have to stand in that lil booth the whole day? I speculate you stay on the same train line for at least a few days and same train for the day? 

[AlgorithmOfTruth]

On 4/6/2018 at 12:25 AM, Nyctransitorhotels said:

You are going off what exactly? You are on the list with the rest of us? 

 

It's a good question. Do you have to stand in that lil booth the whole day? I speculate you stay on the same train line for at least a few days and same train for the day? 

Your schedule will be at the mercy of the crew office until you earn adequate seniority to pick your report time and subway line.

[Dave2836]

On 4/6/2018 at 12:25 AM, Nyctransitorhotels said:

 

It's a good question. Do you have to stand in that lil booth the whole day? I speculate you stay on the same train line for at least a few days and same train for the day? 

Some conductor cabs have a functional bench.  Others might require creative solutions.

[SevenEleven]

On 4/6/2018 at 12:25 AM, Nyctransitorhotels said:

You are going off what exactly? You are on the list with the rest of us? 

 

It's a good question. Do you have to stand in that lil booth the whole day? I speculate you stay on the same train line for at least a few days and same train for the day? 

I'm going off the information that conductors and train operators have posted here in the past, as well as from those that I know personally on the job. While working on the extra extra list (XX) and the regular extra list (XL), you will know your next day assignment, the day before. While on XX, your days off will change weekly and they can send you anywhere within your division. (Lettered lines or numbered lines) On XL, you have steady days off and usually, they try to keep you within what's called your "district." Let me string together some examples using real schedules:

On Monday, you get assigned a job on the B. It reports to Bedford Park Blvd in The Bronx at 709am, and clears at 145th Street  at 251pm. Tuesday, a job on the A, you report and clear at 207th Street, in at 0720am, out at 330pm. Not so bad, right? Wednesday, they send you to East New York at 0546am, you clear at Jamaica Center at 114pm. Thursday, they have an overnight on the N line, report to Astoria in Queens, clear at 96th Street in the city. You live in Staten Island and there's not always going to be parking at these locations. This is just a loose example of how they can string a week together for you.

On the XL list, it's the same thing except you're bouncing around the lines in your district. They can make you sit on report (sit on standby) until something happens and you'll go out, so what started out as an 8 hour day can be an 8 hour day of nothing, or an 8hr+ day of work.

-----

As for staying inside the lil booth (which is called a cab), you can spend the majority of the time there. You don't always have the same train in both directions or for consecutive round trips. What you do, depends on the job that you have picked. Like I mentioned, on XX and XL, you can spend the day sitting. You can be sent to work the platform at a station (which is helping the passengers with information and helping the trains get in/out of stops safely. ) You can spend it doing flagging on the tracks on work zones or you can luck out and have a job each day. As @AlgorithmOfTruth mentioned, once you can pick a job, you'll have some stability but don't expect the stability to last forever until you get a good chunk of time in (or enough people after you in seniority)

[Nyctransitorhotels]

On 4/7/2018 at 10:48 AM, SevenEleven said:

I'm going off the information that conductors and train operators have posted here in the past, as well as from those that I know personally on the job. While working on the extra extra list (XX) and the regular extra list (XL), you will know your next day assignment, the day before. While on XX, your days off will change weekly and they can send you anywhere within your division. (Lettered lines or numbered lines) On XL, you have steady days off and usually, they try to keep you within what's called your "district." Let me string together some examples using real schedules:

On Monday, you get assigned a job on the B. It reports to Bedford Park Blvd in The Bronx at 709am, and clears at 145th Street  at 251pm. Tuesday, a job on the A, you report and clear at 207th Street, in at 0720am, out at 330pm. Not so bad, right? Wednesday, they send you to East New York at 0546am, you clear at Jamaica Center at 114pm. Thursday, they have an overnight on the N line, report to Astoria in Queens, clear at 96th Street in the city. You live in Staten Island and there's not always going to be parking at these locations. This is just a loose example of how they can string a week together for you.

On the XL list, it's the same thing except you're bouncing around the lines in your district. They can make you sit on report (sit on standby) until something happens and you'll go out, so what started out as an 8 hour day can be an 8 hour day of nothing, or an 8hr+ day of work.

-----

As for staying inside the lil booth (which is called a cab), you can spend the majority of the time there. You don't always have the same train in both directions or for consecutive round trips. What you do, depends on the job that you have picked. Like I mentioned, on XX and XL, you can spend the day sitting. You can be sent to work the platform at a station (which is helping the passengers with information and helping the trains get in/out of stops safely. ) You can spend it doing flagging on the tracks on work zones or you can luck out and have a job each day. As @AlgorithmOfTruth mentioned, once you can pick a job, you'll have some stability but don't expect the stability to last forever until you get a good chunk of time in (or enough people after you in seniority)

Thanks. More and more it's sounding like i'm not gonna take this job. 

[alsooh86]

With the union pay and benefits that transit gives, there is no such thing as a bad job. All jobs with transit are good. If you start as conductor, it doesn't mean you'll be stuck as conductor for you whole career. There is a lot of room for promotion and advancement in transit.

On 4/9/2018 at 10:01 PM, Nyctransitorhotels said:

Thanks. More and more it's sounding like i'm not gonna take this job.