The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s introduction of RoboTrain service is making commuters and one elected official in particular unhappy.
The RoboTrain system involves trains that go without a conductor using a wireless transmission system between computers on board, utility rooms along the tracks and in- transit division control centers.
Two days a week, the New York City Transit division of the MTA conducts tests of the new system on the Brooklyn-to-Manhattan L train line, and many riders are uncomfortable with it.
On Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10:05 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., straphangers who go through Broadway Junction in the East New York neighborhood are forced to change trains, despite the fact that trains running between that stop and Canarsie arrive every 24 minutes, according to news reports.
Last week, New York City Councilman Charles Barron came out against the new RoboTrains. This week, Barron told the AmNews that these trains cause delays and impede New Yorkers’ ability to get to work on time.
“Just the mere fact that they’re testing them on Tuesday and Wednesday and have a motor person in there, and there are still delays and computer glitches,” said Barron. “When the glitches do come, it takes too much time to repair-and this is with the motor person right there.” Barron also had another reason for worrying about the elimination of motor people and conductors on trains: unemployment.
“It’s going to lead to unemployment, and it’ll take human beings [conductors] out of the trains,” said Barron. “What happens if the RoboTrain gets stuck in between stations? What happens if the conductors are replaced and the token booth clerks are as well? What if somebody has a heart attack on the train? Some of these emergencies can’t be dealt with through a computer.
“We don’t want Robo operating the trains; we want Robert and Rosalyn,” continued Barron. “We’re already suffering from double-digit unemployment and many TWU [Transit Workers Union] workers are Black and Latino. We don’t need more unemployment.”
Increased mechanization has been a major concern for the TWU as of late. Last week, at the Legislative Office Building in Albany, Local 100 President John Samuelsen, along with elected officials from the Black and Latino Caucus, spoke about a fair housing contract for the union. They’re asking the MTA to drop their demands of three years without wage increases, part-time bus operators and a new, permanent lower wage tier for newly hired cleaners.
Samuelsen said TWU workers “don’t have part-time families, we don’t have part-time mortgages and our children don’t go to school part-time.” The TWU leader said he’ll continue to negotiate a settlement.