If the MTA has its way, token booths will become relics of another era. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
For years, the MTA has tried to do away with station agents. Since they no longer sell tokens, their roles have been greatly reduced. They serve some nominal safety function as a deterrent against crime — though the fact that agents don’t leave booths limits this impact. Meanwhile, over the past seven years, as the MTA has cut costs, station agents have dwindled by 20 percent, and some stations that straddle wide avenues with no crossovers have no agents in sight.
Now, according to Pete Donohue’s latest column, the agency would like to do away with token booths entirely. The MTA wouldn’t fire the agents — at least no right away — but the MTA wants them out of their booths. Donohue has more:
The token booth clerk is going the way of the token itself. Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Thomas Prendergast is looking to redeploy token booth clerks who now spend their entire shifts inside locked cubicles.
“What we’re trying to do is move to a day where we are actually utilizing our employes in ways that are rewarding for them . . . but also provide a more needed service for us in the form of a customer service agent that would be able to be out and about in the station,” Prendergast said during a state Senate committee hearing on authority finances…
Now, the MTA is again thinking outside the booth. “We can all understand and agree, a visible presence of someone on the platform observing and seeing something going on and reporting on it is of value to the system, and that’s the direction in which we’d like to move,” Prendergast said.
But the MTA also is installing intercoms on platforms so riders can report things themselves. Stations are also being wired for cellphone service. And the MTA plans on introducing by 2019 “new fare payment technology” that could entail riders paying at turnstiles with their smartphones or bank-issued credit and debit cards. There were 3,303 token booth clerks a decade ago. There are 2,600 now. There will be far fewer in 2025.
In his piece, Donohue casts a skeptical eye on the idea. He compares it to the MTA’s plan late last decade to introduce those burgundy vest-sported courtesy workers who replaced shuttered station booths and were quickly dismissed when economic troubles hit. I can’t blame anyone for objecting, and we haven’t even heard from union officials yet.
The question that needs to be answered, though, is whether this is a feasible and good idea. The union, as I mentioned, will raise a stink. They’ve pointed to safety concerns in the past and don’t feel that station agents are equipped to handle face-to-face interactions with unruly passengers. But what do agents do? They sometimes know directions, sometimes will assist with damaged or malfunctioning MetroCards. But their impact is largely psychological. If they were eliminated, would the vast majority of subway riders even notice? I don’t think so.
65 comments
2600 now.That means each station has 4 booths
No it doesn’t.
Those staff cover different shifts, vacation & sick time.
To have one station covered 24/7 52 weeks requires
24 hours for 365 days = 8,760 hours
Assume 40 hour work = 2,080 hrs per worker per year (not allowing for vacation etc)
8760 / 2080 = 4.21 workers per year per station (more like 5 when allowing for vacation etc)
And that’s just to staff one booth per station.
At $29.7750 per hour, that means each full time booth costs $260,829 annually in labor to staff, not accounting for overtime, shift differential, and benefit costs.
http://www.twulocal100.org/sit....._final.pdf
A quarter million is cheap money in NYC; that gets you 2/3 of one chief of staff for the mayor’s wife. That’s not including the staff for the mayor’s wife, publicist for the mayor’s wife, etc.
But there’s one mayor’s wife and hundreds of subway stations. And those positions should be eliminated too.
I have mixed feelings about this and there are a lot of questions to be answered first. One thing – not necessarily the most important – that I’d like to see would be some sort of statistics on the activities of agents; are there any kinds of logs of what they do, which services are most requested, etc? I imagine what they’re called upon to do varies a lot between stations and routes, depending for example on whether they’re dealing with tourists or locals. I’ve been very glad of the agents on a few occasions, not just for safety but also for little dumb things like them helping you out when confusing signage or announcements send you to the wrong place, or when the whole line suddenly goes down and you’re trying to get a transfer for the bus, or whatever.
My biggest concerns with moving agents “out of the booths” would be (a) whether this is a stealth plan for simply eliminating those jobs (and along the way reducing services offered) and, alternately (b) how much this is loading these workers down with a ton of psychological labor they didn’t sign up for – handling very high-stress situations with sometimes angry, physically intimidating people with no physical buffer. The pane of Plexiglas may produce some negatives, like all such things do, but given the way I’ve seen some people talk to station agents, I’d be glad of the barrier if I were them….
Sounds like we need more transit cops, not dead weight station agents.
This is a really, really good idea. I’ve always been of the idea that station agents and conductors are a vestige from the past.
Except for the busiest of stations, station agents in booths, especially those unable to accept credit cards, serve the most limited of functions. Providing directions is a task that could just as easily be done while wearing a uniform talking straight to the customer. In fact, it’s an easier task when one can stand with the customer and point at a map, rather than through a microphone. Same with assisting at the MVM, a task which will become even more important when the NFP transition takes place.
There are a couple tasks only agents today can do (combine MetroCards, sell penny increments) that need to be addressed before this plan can take effect, however.
Conductors are needed on the platforms, much like the London Underground has to monitor overcrowding, speed up loading and unloading, get to problematic doors quickly, among other things. Positioned properly and given radios, trains shouldn’t need onboard conductors.
From labor’s perspective, a 10 year no-position-reduction clause could be done, as well as additional money for retraining and for the harder job that the agents now have. In addition, I have a feeling that moving to 100% platform conductors would require hiring more…
Could we shift some of these slots to signal, escalator, and elevator maintenance. It would make the system more reliable and accessible.
Another possibility is to create an in-house competitor to contractors to do repairs and ongoing replacement. That would put pressure on contractors to bring costs down by squeezing change orders and shenanigans.
Never!. Davis Bacon (federal law) + union cross craft violations (union labor agreement) forbid it.
London Underground has platform staff at particularly busy stations but not all stations. At my station there are rarely staff on the platform level and annoucements can be made from the station control room.
All stations are staffed whilst trains are running though.
They have started a programme to close ticket offices and move the staff to be in the station area helping at barriers and at ticket machines rather than be stuck in the booths etc. Only a very small proportion of people used the ticket offices with the majority using the machines. The lack of use of the ticket office was one of the reasons behind the changes.
Again at my local station I usually see 4 staff on duty – 1 at the ticket office, 1 in the control room and 2 at the ticket barriers. They can if necessary move to the platform level but most people need help at the ticket office / entry level.
All staff are trained in dealing with the public and agressive situations.
Yep. London is getting their staff out of the booths and into the public areas.
Try looking down toward the back of the train from the front, especially during rush hour on longer trains (480+ feet) and with curved platforms. (It’s incredibly difficult to do, and I’m looking from the outside! You may have cameras, but they can’t always be installed or be guaranteed to work.) Unless you can guarantee with absolute certainty that automated train installation won’t be a bomb at any point in time, the conductors will continue to stick around.
The safety concern issue is a smokescreen. Agents in other cities routinely interact face-to-face with customers – most newer systems were designed this way and even older systems like Boston’s MBTA eliminated token booths in the last decade and put the employees out among the passengers.
Once the MTA actually rolls out new fare payment options, we can start talking about closing booths. Until then, it would be bad from a customer service position, given both that the TVMs are prone to dying and that station booths are often the only way to combine multiple cards.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Install New MetroCard and have one month where both MetroCard and New MetroCard are valid. During this time, any necessary exchanges may be performed to upgrade to New MetroCard. At select stations (those at the ends of lines and those with the highest ridership) will have the last few station agents. Once MetroCard is completely phased out, so will the clerks be relieved of their positions (though not necessarily of employment with the MTA).
It does make you wonder, however, why it is the NYC subway among all the MTA operations that is being looked to to do more with less.
What about the LIRR, Mr. Cuomo?
Not sure Cuomo has much to do with this, not deliberately anyway. The railroads seem comfortable simply blowing fares up, up, up – the one luxury an operation always has, even if they have to pretend to listen to customers first.
The subway doesn’t have the luxury of shuttling so many high net worth individuals, so presumably NYCTA is at least somewhat more sensitive to fare hike politics.
Regardless of whether they keep the staff, I don’t see much sense in keeping the booths.
The excess costs on the commuter railroads, notably the LIRR, hardly affect their passengers alone.
Of course not, but they have less incentive to control them. NYCTA has at least some.
However, the Nassau and Suffolk County reps, and their bosses, on the MTA board know damn well the backlash if the fares go too high. Considering the drop in gas prices, higher fares will more apparent this time around.
They’re still needed to help open up the gate if you’re trying to carry large luggage etc through the system, right? How else does one legally carry anything too big to fit through the turnstiles? (Although I guess some people would like to see that right taken from us, with homeless men with large shopping carts frequently commandeering entire E train cars…)
I was going to ask the same question. What I imagine will happen is that if someone needs to use the gate, they will ring a button and wait five or ten minutes for a station employee who might be assisting someone at the other end of the station to come and help you. I can already hear the message now. ” All station agents are currently busy assisting other customers. As soon as an agent becomes available he or she will assist you. Your estimated wait time is twelve minutes. You are very important to us. Perhaps you can ride when our station agents are less busy. While you are waiting, here are some rules you should be aware of: no audible music in the cars, you cannot walk through the cars at any time unless so directed by authorized MTA personnel, no food or drink is allowed in the subway cars, always remove your backpack in the train, etc etc.”
By the time you hear all the rules, the agent will be there and the time will just fly. Unfortunately, you will probably miss your train, and if at night, have to wait 20 additional minutes for one. Taxi ridership will boom, and subway ridership will go down enabling less service to be provided, because the MTA will make sure that the trains remain just as crowded as ever.
How many people do you really think need the gate especially late at night at remote stations? 1 per night? 2? Your last paragraph is so divorced from reality that it reads like parody.
There’s hordes of people trying to lug their steamer trunks to the docks at 3AM.
Let’s say it is only one person. What is he supposed to do?
For this to work, cameras would have to be installed at each location and someone in a remote location would have to always be available in a remote location to immediately buzz someone in. There also would have to be a back-up in case someone has to leave his post to use the rest room.
Last time I was there, the fare control gate door by the elevator at the *elevated* 82nd Street Jackson Heights operates by camera and intercom.
He can go thru the turnstile, open the gate from the other side, and pull his steamer trunk through. What do you think people with strollers do?
What about someone in a wheelchair?
Actually, this presents an ADA compliance issue. Everywhere where station agent assistance is needed to get a wheelchair through the gate, a station agent needs to be present.
Hopefully the MTA won’t be stupid. Every other transit agency in the country, and most of the transit agencies worldwide, have figured out how to do this.
Or you can leave your stuff at the gate, swipe yourself through the turnstile, and then pull your stuff through the gate.
But, if you insist, it’s not hard to do gates remotely. One designated gate opener can probably handle the whole system overnight, with the right technology in place.
Another function — school field trips. We often take students on trips via public transportation, and that requires someone in the booth to open the gate so that whole group can enter at once. We are fortunate to have our school located between two stations that still have attendants (although one of the women who works at Bedford Avenue doesn’t understand how ratios work), but there are plenty of schools where the nearest attended station is quite a bit away. Does this mean we won’t be able to do field trips anymore?
Paying for a metrocard for each child is certainly cheaper than having a gate agent around at all times
Have you ever taken an entire class of 30 students, plus parents and/or aides on a class trip by subway?
It would be sheer absolute chaos handing each 4th grader a Metro-Card for them to use in the subway! Or expecting that same student to still have their Metro-Card for the return trip back to school?
Believe it or not, handling a class of college students is really not have much better or efficient.
Granted, financially it may be cheaper to not have the customer booths staffed at all times – but there are functions and times where on-site staff are needed. There’s a good argument for a mixture of approaches and staff at various places and at various times.
Mike
Hell, it’s hard enough to do with 1/3 of that size.
I’m not against your general gist, but this point is not persuasive. Give teachers a metrocard with X number of rides, or spread it across a deck of 3-4 cards so accompanying adults can swipe the kids in. It’s not like the token booth clerk really helps in this situation. Or a remote station wired up so one person can watch dozens of fare control entrances. They swipe a card, or have a conversation, or wave a piece of paper into the camera lens, and they’re through.
Every subway station still has at least one agent.
But only on one side, with no cross over.
Use the single use student metro cards http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/.....eqed9g.jpg
I hope you’re joking.
Jim D,
I can’t say for most US cities, NJ transit they have clerks.
In Japan they do interact everyday.
They are there for fare adjustment, issue tickets, help the disbaled and elderly on off train and up and down stairs if requested.
Japanese system have tickets, weekly, monthly, no touch systems. Takes as much as 100.00 in there machines as well from station clerks.
Even with Smartphones people still look for human counter part to ask questions.
I see people lost with their smartphones on Google maps and as soon as I say you need help most are like yes. You explain in layman terms, they are happy.
As more people use the system , the more we need those token booth clerks.
I’d say we need someone in each station. Not necessarily in the booths.
^^^^^^ This!
Yeah, this. This is what London did, and it’s what Boston did.
That said, there should preferably be a person within sight of the booth at all times, so (s)he can enter the booth and do things like combine cards and open gates when that proves necessary.
MBTA did this when the tokens went away. The token people were asked to stand by the fare machines and help people, and answer questions. They also help if theres a problem with the ticket gate (ie, it doesnt return your paper pass)
However, they were given temporary plastic token booths and many will run away and hide in them (even though theyre all see through).
On the plus side, if you do have a question, they come out of the plastic booth rather than give you some incomprehensible microphone garble.
Today the MTA service change stated, “Some northbound R Subway Line Icon trains are running on the F Subway Line Icon line from 34 St-Herald Square to 36 St (Qns)”
Is a switch from the Broadway to the 6th Avenue Line possible at Herald Square?
No, it isn’t. Some intern goofed again.
R trains run via the F between 57/7 and 36 St(Queens).
Now that I have lived in different sections of brooklyn, I can say that in the area I live in, which has an elder and poorer population (median household income of $30,000), a lot of people still use the station agent. I always see a small line of people in front of the booth. I only notice it in passing, so I can’t say what it is they are actually asking, but its usually metrocard-related, especially with the seniors.
No reason not to consider such situations when closing down a station agent.
Or consider keeping some open part time.
a deterrent against crime??? LOL, tell that to the poor lady that was raped a few years back on the G train. token booth clerk did nothing (as most of them do). its time to eliminate all these positions. all the money that’s saved can be used to build new rail lines!!!! times change people, people who fix VHS players are not in high demand these days.
I live in Jackson Heights and the token booths at 82nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue always have long lines. For many seniors and immigrants, these booths are a popular method for purchasing metrocards. Sometimes, in Manhattan, if the lines at the MVM’s are long and nobody is waiting for the booth, I use it to get a Metrocard, myself. I suppose more and better MVM’s would solve these problems. What if instead of doing away with booths we had booths that were more open? That way, the staff could exit the booth easily to help you.
In a recent trip to Chicago, I was very impressed at the station agents wandering around the stations and interacting with the customers. We got off the Blue Line from O’Hare and must have looked a bit bewildered as the agent was there in what seemed like a second and offered directions – much more useful than being in a booth.
Ah, you’re expecting the booth employees to do actual work. That’s not in the contract, y’know.
Chicago’s already made the switch to Ventra. We still haven’t done that.
Charge technophobes extra for buying a metrocard at the booth.
That’s a reductive and ridiculous statement to make. There’s the possibility that the card has to be purchased from the booth simply because every MVM at the station is out or has a long line.
Just charge people who make small transactions more. One ride costs about as much to transact as 10 or 100.
Here’s an idea. Two groups of station employees will be created.
-Platform agents will be present at the more popular stations, and will roam the station helping customers. These agents will also help the T/O close the doors on crowded trains. There will be no conductors on trains.
-Fare control agents will resemble the current token clerks in that they will have a booth, but they will also be allowed to be outside the booth as long as they stay in sight of it. That way, they can help customers directly, but also be available if, for instance, someone needs to combine cards or use the gate.
Thoughts?
Sounds reasonable.
Have the agents in stations act more like the cashier at the self checkout at CVS. New TVMs could have a help button and agents roaming stations could come log in and do any functions that the customer can’t do or combine cards, etc. they could also have a card to swipe in a customer with a broken card or extenuating circumstances. In combination with some remote functions with the new help points, it could really work well.
MTA cares only about one thing, and that is to save money. If they can get away with unmanned stations or unmanned train operations, so be it, and the hell with what the the public thinks.
I never use them , and usually see them yelling at tourists who’ve never used the subways before .
“welcome to NY ” . . tourists , our subway clerks are the biggest assholes ever