(I believe that it is illegal to repeat any content heard on radio
other than on broadcast and ham radio.)

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/...-ny-columnists

IN THE SUBWAYS

Straphangers flex their muscles
Ray Sanchez

August 1, 2005

Little trace remains of the early-morning mutiny on a conductorless L
train in Brooklyn.

Still, the rebellion is noteworthy as the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority moves ahead with plans to eliminate more than 300 conductors
on four subway lines in coming years.

The tale of mutinous MetroCard holders was recounted by Jon Schachter,
a Manhattan resident and longtime subway activist, who deciphered it
from transit radio frequencies.

It starts sometime after 2:30 a.m. on July 10, in the tension-filled
days after the first terrorist bombings in the London Underground.
Schachter was riding the L beneath the East Village, listening, as he
always does on the train, to his portable scanner.

"There was a Manhattan-bound train and transit control center says,
'Hold at Lorimer with your doors open,'" Schachter recalled.

That would be Lorimer Street station in Brooklyn. It was unclear what
the trouble was. Maybe signal problems. There was a track gang working
on the line beneath Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, Schachter said.

"They held the train at Lorimer for a while before they said, 'Proceed
to Bedford and discharge the train,'" he said.

The lone motorman took his eight-car train to Bedford Avenue, the last
stop in Brooklyn before the train enters Manhattan via a tube under
the East River. One-person train operation, a money-saving measure
known as OPTO, was introduced on the L last month - on nights and
weekends, for now.

The controversial move counters the transit agency's supposed focus on
security in the wake of terrorist bombings on trains in London and
Madrid. The MTA plans to eliminate the positions of 313 train
conductors on four subway lines, starting in 2007, according to a
published report.

"The train proceeds to Bedford Avenue and, of course, there's only one
person on the train," said Schachter, referring to the train operator.
At that hour, people leaving clubs and restaurants along Bedford flock
to the subway.

"He calls back on his radio and says people won't get off the train,"
Schachter continued. "This guy has eight cars of people to discharge
by himself. They called police and it was almost three in the morning
and the police never showed."

Frustration on the L line had been running high for months. The MTA
hopes to run its first automated trains on the line. Service
disruptions have been frequent as the line's antiquated signal system
is replaced.

Schachter believes riders at Bedford Avenue that morning had had
enough.

"There were too many people," he said. "They said, 'No, we're not
getting off. We're not taking this crap. We want to get home.'"

A New York City Transit spokesman, Charles Seaton, said there was no
record of the incident. But this was not a denial. "It means we can't
find a record of it," he said.

"I'm sure he was sound asleep at the time," Schachter said of the
transit spokesman.

A police spokesman yesterday said the incident would likely go
unreported by cops. "There was no crime committed," he said.

So Schachter's recollection of radio transmissions is the hardest
information available on the mutinous L line riders.

"Finally, somebody at the control center said, 'I have a solution,
call me on the phone,'" he said. "Moments later you hear the
announcement, 'OK, we're going to send this train and the next one
into Manhattan.' They let the train roll because people would not get
off."

"I know that occasionally there are mutinies, but I didn't hear the
details of that particular one," said Andrew Albert, a nonvoting
member of the MTA board who represents riders.

Last week, London's largest transit union threatened to strike if rail
guards were not reinstated on all tube trains. Rail guards, as
London's conductors are known, were eliminated decades ago.

A motorman on the L line yesterday said passenger mutinies are not
uncommon.

"People get fed up," he said. "If they don't sense that it's a
dangerous situation, they're not going to get off your train."

He added, "From our point of view, it's only a matter of time before
the New York subway is attacked. When it happens, I hope I have a
conductor on my train."

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.