Transit Talk : New York's Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories

by Robert W. Snyder

New York City may seem to be a place where everyone is a stranger, yet transit workers provide a human presence on a late-night bus or an empty subway platform. Few of us give any thought to these invisible workers-until something goes wrong. Transit Talk takes readers into the world of MTA New York City transit employees, as they describe their lives and work, from the most visible subway conductor to the seemingly invisible mechanic.

There are nearly 44,000 transit workers like those you will meet in Transit Talk , and every day they help five million of us travel to work, to school, to weddings, to funerals, to hospitals, to vacations. These workers labor daily on subway tracks inches from high-voltage powerlines, risking their lives for passengers they'U never know. The city can feel large and fragmented, but the transportation system and its workers create common threads in the lives of all New Yorkers, threads we take for granted.

Together, their stories create a human tableau of life and labor in the city within a city that is the MTA New York City Transit. Transit workers find satisfaction in fixing a damaged subway car, gain wisdom from mastering a dangerous workplace, nurse emotional wounds from tending to someone injured in an accident, battle frustration from difficulties with management, and express satisfaction when reflecting on a productive career. They tell of how years spent in the same shop create bonds between workers. They talk of the burden of laboring in a twenty-four-hour system with night shifts and weekend workdays that take them away from families. You'U hear painful tales of informing next-of-kin of a death on the tracks as well as joyous anecdotes of workers delivering a baby in a subway car.

Genres: New York, Nonfiction

171 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up in the Barnes and Noble on 18th and Fifth. I was getting ARCO books for a bunch of civil service tests I was taking. This book looked interesting so I got it. It was interesting and I liked it.
A year or two later I put it and other books out on the stoop for anyone to take. Some weeks later this book appeared in a Talk of the Town piece in the New Yorker.
Coincidence? I think not.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the New York City Subway (and who doesn't), you'll love this book. It is simply the stories of the various employees who work for the MTA. Cleaners, mechanics, motormen (and women)...it's all here.

As a NYC nut (yes), I found it compelling. All you other nuts will love it too.

[A.M. Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile read. I learned a lot about the history of public transit in New York City. It was an intriguing peek into the lives of the people who work on the trains, buses, and other transit services.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transit talk goes behind the sense and shows the reader a day in a life of a transit worker on the MTA. One time someone got mugged on the subway and the conductor saved them. Anothe time a bus driver saved trapped maids in the empire state biuldings elevators. What ever story it is it's short and shows loads of stories.

I made a text-to-self connection in the transit book. These are stories of real people doing every day jobs and before I read this book I had no idea how hard these people's jobs really are. I hope that I don't get stuck working for the transit because it's nosy, it's also

I'll give this book a 5 because it's all about the transit. I've wondered what it's like behind the controls of a bus or train and this book tells it. I hope they might make a book about the guys who work in the MTA control room and direct trains.That's a control tower and all in all the book was great.

[Doug · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring

[robomatey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting personal stories, not too sappy. I'm glad I wasn't working in a subway booth in the 80's.