I do agree that the announcements take way too long, to the point of delaying service. Does anybody at Astor Place really care that their 6 train is making express stops in the Bronx?

For some technical reason, the proper cab has to be designated in advance, and that can only be done while the train is stopped and the doors are closed. (No, I don’t understand.) I’ve seen the redesignation procedure done two ways – I don’t know which is the proper way, or if it’s up to the conductor. Sometimes, the train will pull into the terminal and the conductor will open the doors to let everybody off, close the doors, disable the door controls, cross into the next cab, enable its door controls, and reopen the doors. Other times (and this is what I see most often these days, so maybe it’s now the only proper way), the train will pull into the terminal and stop, and the conductor will disable the door controls, cross into the next cab, enable its door controls, and only first open the doors then.

This, of course, only applies where the train reverses in the station. If it continues past the station to relay, then none of this applies. Instead, since the train goes out of service briefly, the crew has to check the entire train to make sure that nobody’s still on board.

Keying open one door panel in each car is done simply to keep the heat or air conditioning in while still allowing access to the train. In the older cars, it’s done manually. In the newer cars (R142+), the conductor has a special door control that closes all the doors except for one panel in each car.

An addition to ugly are the conductors that play the stand-clear-of-the-closing-doors-please clip before every attempt (while in the same station) to close the door when passengers are blocking.