New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow took direct aim at the Transport Workers Union Monday, slamming a renewed push by the union to lock in two-person crews on subway trains through state legislation.
Speaking at the MTA board’s New York City Transit Committee meeting on March 23, Crichlow argued that the TWU International-backed bill would tie the agency’s hands and block it from expanding one-person train operation, known as OPTO, to more subway lines across the city.
“Legislating details of New York City Transit’s daily operation, of its trains and its stations, is unwise generally,” Crichlow said. “Here it will prevent New York City Transit from safely taking advantage of new technology that could save the public millions of dollars.”
The transit chief framed OPTO as the direction the entire industry is heading. “It is the industry standard that high performing organizations, high performing transportation networks, are implementing,” he said. “This is not an area that New York needs to take steps backwards, not an area that New York needs to be last.”
The stakes are significant. TWU Local 100 represents the city’s subway workers, including roughly 36,000 conductors whose jobs sit directly in the crosshairs of any OPTO expansion. For generations, conductors have opened and closed train doors, made announcements about service changes, and served as an on-board presence for riders navigating the system.
The MTA has already rolled out OPTO on its shuttle lines and select low-ridership routes on weekends. Crichlow said that limited rollout alone is already saving the agency $9 million annually. “That’s money that’s reinvested back into employees, that’s reinvested back into service,” he said.
TWU Local 100 President John Chiarello pushed back hard, rejecting the idea that conductors are expendable and arguing New York’s subway is unlike any other transit system in the world.
“What’s unwise is doing away with a set of eyes and ears on trains that prevents perilous situations from happening during operation and allows for our members to be first on the scene when an emergency situation occurs,” Chiarello said in a statement. “Other transit systems around the world are just that, other transit systems. Not New York’s. Our system serves more people 24/7 than any other system in existence.”
Chiarello’s argument gets at a tension that has defined this fight from the start. Management sees OPTO as a cost-saving modernization. The union sees conductors as a safety net that no automated system can replace, particularly in a subway that runs around the clock through some of the most densely packed stations on the planet.
The TWU’s legislative push seeks to require the MTA to maintain two-person crews, a driver and a conductor, on every line that currently has them. The union recently revived that effort after it stalled in prior sessions.
Crichlow also contended the legislation would drive up costs, though his remarks appeared to reference an earlier version of the bill that carried different requirements than the current proposal.
The fight arrives at a fraught moment for the MTA, which continues to hunt for ways to close long-term budget gaps even as the system scrambles to meet rising ridership demand after years of pandemic-era losses. The agency has consistently pointed to labor costs as one of its largest expenditures, and OPTO fits squarely into its efficiency playbook.
For the union, the math looks different. Conductors are not just a line item, the argument goes. They are what stands between a routine delay and a genuine emergency turning catastrophic underground.
Both sides acknowledge the technology exists. What they disagree on is whether New York City’s subway, with its age, its volume, and its complexity, is the right place to trust it fully.
That fight is now heading toward Albany, where lawmakers will have to decide whether to let the MTA run its trains its way, or force the agency to keep a human presence on board.
