Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

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> The L is entirely computerized already. The two people working on each train are there to press a "keep the union happy" button every 30 seconds.

In case anyone thinks this is a joke, it's not. The MTA pays the Transit Workers Union massive sums of money when they use technology they use which does a job otherwise performed by a human, even when it's been standard practice worldwide to automate that job for decades.

One example, from tunnel boring:

> The critics pointed to several unusual provisions in the labor agreements. One part of Local 147’s deal entitles the union to $450,000 for each tunnel-boring machine used. That is to make up for job losses from “technological advancement,” even though the equipment has been standard for decades.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...

I don't understand why New York has two employees per train. Nearly everywhere else in the world has 1.

The person in the middle's job seems to be operating the doors and making sure the train is berthed correctly, but all you have to do is put a line where the front of the train has to line up and the driver can do it. As for the doors, it's not like the driver has much else to do when in the station.

Nominally, the trains are long, and sometimes the stations are curved. A person in the middle of the train can see more of the doors to make sure they're clear.

This is easily solved by cameras.

Now, yes, but when the union started it wasn't, and they've been working ever since to never allow cuts in the number of personnel.

> I don't understand why New York has two employees per train. Nearly everywhere else in the world has 1.

Because the TWU penalizes the MTA financially for technological advancement. They are incredibly powerful, mostly because neither the MTA nor the state government which oversees the MTA bother to keep costs in check.

There's no reason the L couldn't be completely automated, with zero employees per train. As described elsewhere in the thread, the person operating the train doesn't actually have to do anything at the moment; the entire process is already automated.

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