NJ Transit to ‘Humanize’ Conductors Who Face Commuter Wrath

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Thirdrail7

Thirdrail7

Engineer
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
4,542
I guess they've finally realized not everyone is as calm and forgiving as our Mystic River Dragon. :)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...manize-train-conductors-who-face-commuter-ire

New Jersey Transit will videotape train conductors on the job to try to “humanize” crews that have felt the wrath of commuters amid a rash of delays and cancellations.

The plans to video were disclosed in a post on the website of Local 60 of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. Some passengers of the cash-strapped railroad sometimes gripe on social media about alleged mistreatment by conductors, while others praise beloved staffers, some who’ve worked the same routes for decades. Past posts by the union have mentioned a spate of assaults in recent months.
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I never really had any major issues with the conductors after almost 9 years of riding those trains. Most were quite pleasant. There was only one with which I had any serious issues. In fact, I was part of a group of commuters that took a given outbound train home regularly (and for whom the conductor was the oldest and longest serving conductor at the time). He would always have "student/apprentice" conductors on his train that he would be checking out/certifying. And we would help by playing different "passenger" scenarios to see how the student/apprentice would react. In one case, a student was just about to be certified, but had a fear of making "PA" announcements. Which was OK because the actual assistant conductor (not our friend) was a "Motor Mouth" that always wanted to do the announcements. So for her "final exam" from us, the passenger group, we had her do a "Next station stop" announcement, much to the dismay of that asst. conductor, but it had to be done.

She (student) did very well.
 
Thirdrail7 said:
I guess they've finally realized not everyone is as calm and forgiving as our Mystic River Dragon. :)

Thanks, Thirdrail7:). I think I can stay calm and forgiving because I only have to ride two stops and get to detrain at PJC, so I avoid most of the crowd going to NYC, who board as I get off, and vice versa going home.:)

I have almost always had good conductors (I have my favorites in the morning, and will pick my train and even my train car to have them). I've encountered one or two snarky ones in the afternoon, but very rarely--most of them just look exhausted by the time they get to PJC, and just seem to want to get the trip finished, but are not rude.

I think it's a shame that people are taking out their frustrations on the conductors--the delays and cancellations obviously are not their fault.
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Sorry it's all in italics above--I was not quoting myself! Just the first line should have been a quote. I still sometimes mess up the Quote feature.
 
It seems like there is an uptick of assaults on NJT personnel. Therefore, they are stepping up training.

https://www.ttnews.com/articles/nj-transits-angry-riders-prompt-crew-training-stem-assaults


A soaring number of physical assaults on New Jersey Transit employees have led the agency to step up anti-violence training as bus and train riders vent about crowding and cancellations.


Twenty-seven personnel have reported assaults either on board trains or on NJ Transit rail property from January through July, according to Federal Railroad Administration data. That’s four more than for calendar years 2016-2018 combined. Assault data for bus workers weren’t immediately available.

Bus and rail employees and NJ Transit police now will get “conflict de-escalation” training from Rutgers University’s National Transit Institute, to supplement existing coursework, according to an agency news release.

“The best way to help employees at risk of on-the-job assaults is to help them prevent the assault,” Michael Rubin, an NJ Transit employee court advocate, said in a statement. The training will give employees “additional tools at hand to de-escalate situations and protect themselves and their customers from possible assaults.”
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Agreed that there's never a reason to assault a crew, but if you have chronic problems there's an increasing chance that of your thousands of passengers you're going to have someone who gets pushed a hair too far. That's more the law of large numbers at play than anything (witness air rage issues as well).
 

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