Molson Hart

It’s been so long since I’ve ridden the subway this late at night that I forgot the feeling of getting angry at 10-min headways when I know that they could run 5-min headways at the same cost if they’d just drop the conductors. I do not miss this!

Conductors are not necessary to run the trains whatsoever?

No, almost no other subway on earth has conductors, just a driver

I mean...why do we even need those? According to this article.conductors are pretty important: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-NYC-subway-trains-have-an-operator-and-a-conductor …

Yeah I heartily disagree with that. The screens are more than enough. So does MTA management – they tried to get rid of them on the L train, but were thwarted by the labor arbitrator (who decided it based on precedent, not any technical reason)

There is a nice German term for those answers "hanebüchen". The reason for conductors (on new trains) looks to me like "unions". Hmm… maybe this is also the reason why the NY subway does not seriously consider articulated trains and/or full-width gangways.