Re: $787K Study Seeks to Find Ways to Encourage Subway Riders to Ride LIRR and MNRR (1472000) | |||
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Re: $787K Study Seeks to Find Ways to Encourage Subway Riders to Ride LIRR and MNRR |
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Posted by lirr42 on Sun Apr 8 11:56:05 2018, in response to Re: $787K Study Seeks to Find Ways to Encourage Subway Riders to Ride LIRR and MNRR, posted by Fisk Ave Jim on Sun Apr 8 10:52:01 2018. Who does all of those things on European regional railroads? The LIRR and Metro-North are not the only systems in the world that have trains with doors, short platforms, or emergencies.The answer to your question is the responsibilities of conductors, assistant conductors, and collectors would either be assumed by the engineperson or replaced by technology. The reality is there are no legal, regulatory, or even contractual requirement that says the railroads have to have three people to do the job of one person... The engineperson would operate the doors. The onboard software could be modified so the train knows to only open 4 cars at certain stations, sensors could be added by doors so they only open when a platform is detected. Or, even better, if the railroads are not spending $250 million each on conductors every year, the one-time costs of extending all of those 4-car platforms to 10-cars would be a drop in the bucket. For all other emergencies, the emergency intercoms can be used to reach the person in the cab...it's not like conductors always intervene directly in every situation. Often they just call the police and wait, which can be done just as effectively by the engineperson. Proof-of-payment and eliminating conductors is very likely the single biggest thing the railroad's can do to improve service. Not only would it save roughly a quarter-billion dollars each year for each railroad, but it would drastically reduce the marginal cost of adding more service. On the LIRR, conductors, assistant conductors, and collectors make up 73% of the marginal cost of adding new service. The MTA's first and most important responsibility is to deliver effective and affordable service to their passengers, not prop up the unions. Without talking proof-of-payment, entertaining any other idea put forth in this thread or by this study is just a waste of time. |