passenger car environmental controls or lack of

What cases does anybody know where the train crew can't turn off the car's heating or air conditioning?
I was on an NJ Transit Riverline train this week, the outside temperature was in the high 50's F, and the car's heat was on very high. I tapped on the operator's door and asked him to turn the heat off, he said he can't control the heat. Was he telling the truth?

I know that PCC streetcars used waste heat from the brakes to keep the cars warm, similar to an automobile's system that redirects engine radiator heat either into the passenger area or to the outside. The system in Philadelphia PCC's of my child and young adulthood required that someone with tools go underneath the car to adjust the blowers, and just like on automobiles sometimes the system leaked, so we'd have freezing interior in winter and what seemed like full car heat in summer. I find it hard to believe that million dollar railcars less than 10 years old don't have a heat-air conditioning on-off switch that works.

Huh, I know that in Twin Cities (later Newark, Cleveland and Mexico City) PCC cars, there is a specific switch to turn on the heat. I'm not sure whether it enabled additional resistor heating for the interior, or if it just directed the brake resistor outflow either inside or outside the car. There is a little more about the PCC's heating or lack thereof here: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 51&t=46105

As for HVAC, it seems unlikely that a modern train operator wouldn't have some controls, though I can't say for sure. Maybe they are outside of the cab or difficult to reach, or he just didn't want to be bothered.