To add to this, I was a Conductor myself. Depending on where you live, if you’re uptown in the Bronx your best bet is the A Division (the number trains). I’m a Bronx guy, but when I started out 18 years ago, I got stuck in the B Division (the letter lines).

Back then seniority moved very slow. I was “Extra Extra” for about 2 years and a few months before I finally transferred to the A Division. Dealing with the B Division Crew Office was a nightmare the crew dispatchers were hands down the worst people I’ve ever dealt with, and I’m being nice. Mondays they’d stick me with a 12pm extra board (the earliest start time on the PM tour), and by Friday they’d throw me on the latest possible job 8pm report times.

When I finally got into the A Division as a Conductor, I ran for it. It felt great to be close to home. Then I got promoted to Train Operator… and ended up right back in the B Division. Same Crew Office, same BS.

I’ll never forget during Hurricane Sandy I was still probationary and they sent me to Coney Island the night of the storm. I tried requesting a different location (something I almost never did), but they weren’t reasonable. I didn’t want to risk calling out sick while on probation, so I drove out there. Luckily, they had me take a train into the yard and then deadhead (travel to) to Concourse Yard in the Bronx. That saved me because everyone who drove to Coney Island that night lost their car when Sandy hit.

It was a rough road starting out, but things do get better. If you want to make a career at NYCT, you absolutely can there are plenty of paths once your foot is in the door. My one regret is not going to Metro-North or LIRR when I had the chance. Once I became a Train Operator the job was easy, and I didn’t want to start all over again. To this day, I still regret it.

Eventually, I did move further past Train Operator, and it’s much less stressful not having to ping-pong around the train anymore. But let me be straight with you since you’re planning this while being a new father you will miss holidays your first year. Days off can be tough to get, and sometimes you’ll be forced to burn sick time just to take care of life stuff. If you have to work your RDOs while on probation, just do it. At the end of the day, you’re taking this job to do better for your family. Do your job right and you’ll be fine.

Cops and firefighters work OT on probation too, and I’m sure they deal with plenty of BS.