![\"Subway](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/subway-conductor-mta-marc-a-hermann.jpg\" "\\"Will")
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Conductors act as the eyes and ears of trains and platforms, ensuring that passengers get on and off subways safely and properly. As they scope out the station surroundings, engineers (motormen) are always in the first car, operating the train.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marc A. Hermann \/ MTA<\/p>\n
As Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> considers signing a bill to indefinitely keep two staff members on NYC subways<\/a>, commuters might not realize that conductor-less trains are already rolling on some tracks within the system.<\/p>\n Hochul, who is up for reelection next year, is facing a decision regarding a controversial bill passed by the state legislature that mandates the continued presence of conductors<\/a> on nearly all of New York City\u2019s subway trains.\u00a0<\/p>\n Supporters of the bill, which is called S4091<\/a> and A4873<\/a> in the State Senate and Assembly, respectively, argue that a two-person crew is essential for public safety and operational reliability. However, some trains in the city, including the shuttle in Times Square and the G train at night, which connects Queens to Brooklyn, already run without conductors.<\/p>\n John Samuelsen, Transit Workers Union International president, said trains that currently run with a one-person crew \u2014 just the engineer \u2014 only do so in \u201cextremely limited\u201d circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Times Square shuttle is a premier example,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a shortened car and a straight run with no curves, in other words.\u201d Conductors act as the eyes and ears of trains and platforms, ensuring that passengers get on and off subways safely and properly. As they scope out the station surroundings, engineers (motormen) are always in the first car, operating the train.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Hochul signs off on the state bill, it would essentially help enshrine into law the standard practice of having conductors present on most MTA trains.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The governor has until the end of the year to sign off on the bill. amNewYork reached out to Hochul\u2019s office for comment on the bill; a representative said she is still reviewing the legislation.<\/p>\n Even if she does not sign it, the status of conductors will not change; the bill is more of a measure to further cement the current rule into law.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe want it enshrined into law that the two-person train crew is a matter of NYS law,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cBecause, every single time we go into contract negotiations, they try to eliminate the two-person train crew.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the trains will \u201cnever lose\u201d conductors \u2014 adding that the union would sooner walk off the job than let it happen. Transit strikes have occurred before, despite such job actions being a violation of the state\u2019s Taylor Law.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll strike the NYC Transit system before we let the conductors be stripped from us,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Are subway conductors a redundancy?<\/p>\n But an academic think tank criticized the need for a two-person crew on NYC Transit, which has the largest subway system in the United States, with 472 stations and 665 miles of track with trains that operate 24\/7.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-08-at-16.32.13.jpeg\" "\\"Will")
TWU President John Samuelsen.Shane O\u2019Brien\n<\/p>\n