New equipment technology

The cameras will revolutionize the "slip trip and fall" gravy train that the Railroad has been to every money grubbing Long Island miscreet.

And since the MTA Police have become very adversarial toward employees in passenger assault cases, the cameras should be a gold mine for employees who loose money because of bogus passenger claims.

This surveillance will indeed change the landscape. the biggest problem is the unforgiving effect on the nice guy. The good employee who does his job 95% of the time will now have to pay for that 5% indiscretion or mistake, whereas in the past, his good reputation would usually prevail and let him off the hook. And of course there will be a period of adjustment before the Carrier realizes that *everyone* -- good and bad -- is getting in trouble and adjusts its discipline policies.

It doesn't surprise me that the RR police would side with the "valued customers" when they assault train crew members lol.
I'd love to know how this contrasted to the RR police from 50 years ago who would investigate assault claims against train crew members.

Without going off on a tangent about the MTA Police but remaining on topic about new technology - they do not want to publicize high arrest or criminal numbers that may portray the MTA system as unsafe. Keeping the peace, protecting the property, and keeping the show moving is usually their motive. Most regular patrons and employees know there is a contrasting difference between local and state police compared to them. The onboard cameras as K&K said will also hold them more accountable. If something happens on a train they are doing train patrol and they were found to be in one of the closed cars it may spell trouble.

Also, the days where chronically mischief trainmen who choose to have a short day because they ripped their pants may be numbered. The company will be looking to make examples of people who choose not to abide by the expectations set forth for them.

Then they better contract out to better uniform manufacturers lol. I was bending down once to key onto an M7 when the entire backside of my uniform pants split wide open. I was still new and was not versed in how to "game the system" as this was 100% legit. Lol. A camera would have made no difference except that a manager could have gotten a close up view of my arse.

ADL, you missed the part where I mentioned, "chronic," or in in simpler terms so you understand - the 5%.

Another thing that will be closely monitored that K&K mentioned are revenue collection practices. If a Transportation Manager asks you why you missed fares on a certain train and you said it was due to overcrowding when it wasn't the case, be prepared for repercussions. My guess is they will focus on the bigger fish who have a tendency of repeated offenses and work their way down.

Believe me, this is going to be a total game changer and a lot of new precedents will be set.

ADL6009 wrote:Then they better contract out to better uniform manufacturers lol. I was bending down once to key onto an M7 when the entire backside of my uniform pants split wide open. I was still new and was not versed in how to "game the system" as this was 100% legit. Lol. A camera would have made no difference except that a manager could have gotten a close up view of my arse.

If you have a "wardrobe malfunction" will they let you go home early?

Yes, if you ripped your pants to the point you were exposed, you were sent home. With pay. In the old days, there was a tailor shop in Jamaica, where you could get another pair of pants. In a cost cutting move, the Railroad closed it. Probably in the middle 80's I would guess. Obviously one could only use this excuse once, maybe twice. After that, it would become obvious it was a ploy.
One New years day, a passenger threw up on my shoes. I took my shoes and socks off, went to the shower in the Amtrak room, took a nice hot shower, while my brakeman went to K-Mart to get me another pair of shoes and socks, and I stayed at work. We could all write books about things that happened. I threw the original pair of shoes and socks out for obvious reasons.

P.S. On the story above.. when I looked down at my shoes I muttered to myself oh you bleeping ahole... the person actually had the gall to write a complaint to the RR which was followed up by a visit by a supervisor a few weeks later. I said to the supervisor look i stayed at work, and besides what would you say if it happened to you? I think I handled it pretty well. She said good point, I never heard another word about it

On the topic about complaints - one of the many applications that this new added technology to the rolling stock will be used for are to investigate things more thoroughly with passenger interaction with crews. At the time of this post, there are no talks about footage being streamed in, "real time," however both audio and visual footage will be used with all customer complaints with train crew members.

I am not sure if this was mentioned but the use of shotgun microphones will be used in the operating compartments.

There were a handful of Conductors who did their Jobs By the book. As a result they got many complaints from the Passengers about how they were charged the fare because they left their tickets home, or were charged the penalty fare on the trains. Got to the point where a few started wearing small tape recorders to cover themselves when the inevitable trial notices were sent out. One such Conductor was told you have 10 complaint letters. They were all about charging the penalty fare as was required. Finally fed up, he stopped charging the penalty. Two weeks later he got a trial notice for NOT charging the penalty fare. There had been an MTA spotter on the train who turned him in. Something inside him snapped, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
He ended up having to go to EAP ( employee assistance) and was out of work for a month seeing a shrink for panic attacks. He eventually was back at work, but he had to finish out his career working in yards to avoid passengers. He worked there another 7 years. I bet he would have welcomed the cameras and audio. To this day, 9 years after retirement, this Conductor is still on anti anxiety Meds. So a professional who does his job will welcome the cameras and audio.

The said employee LIRR277 writes about used to be a contributing member here on the forums for years under many usernames. Also omitted from the story was that he had a deplorable reputation, work ethic and much of what he got was deserved. The Railroad has been a better place since his forced retirement and to this day is still mentioned in meetings.

I won't name names on here but there was one such employee I remember. he was very lazy and complained all the time. We tolerated him as much as we could but he was so obese, he wouldn't work and did not get along with his crew. He was envious that engineers were more important than him and blamed them every time something went wrong. I apprecaite eng277 and his post because sometimes the company wanted it both ways. Most often its the employee that brings this trouble on themselves. If an employee has a good reputation we take that into account when there is a complaint. if an employee is lazy, complains all the time, fights with everyone, then we ALSO take that into account when there is a complaint.

I forgot to mention, look for the Mobile Ticketing pilot launched in Spring of 2016 for LIRR/MNR. It will encompass all commutation tickets, although you may still opt to purchase from ticket agents, vending machines, etc. The MTA is looking to eventually become completely cashless as it looks to minimize its overhead with the cost of doing business and collect more accurate statistics for ridership.

Yes, I've seen that in Cuomo's recent press tour. I've always been amazed at how slow mobile/ticketless has been to happen. Amtrak's been doing it for years.

Jeff Smith wrote:Yes, I've seen that in Cuomo's recent press tour. I've always been amazed at how slow mobile/ticketless has been to happen. Amtrak's been doing it for years.

One of the issues with Amtrak is that you buy a ticket for a particular train. Whereas with commuter type railroads you buy a ticket for any train. That factors heavily into the technology issue and ticket forgery.

I got the opportunity to mess around with the MTA Railroad mobile ticketing app not too long ago. It looks to be a real good system for train crews and the public. A few minor things I might change from a user interface perspective but otherwise a very solid system. The pilot program should roll out in the next few months.