it's rush hour at the World Trade Center subway station this is one of 468 stations that transport a staggering 4.7 million people in and out of the city every day join me as we go behind closed doors and underground with the New York City subway system first thing you need to know about the New York subway it's big in fact if it's 722 miles of track were placed in a straight line they would stretch all the way to Chicago it's tunnels wind above below and through some of the world's most expensive real estate it curves it shrieks but it keeps on rolling for native New Yorkers the subway is their lifeline the New York would be in this city of eight million a few people have cars that's because the best way to get across the city is to travel beneath it the subway cost a dollar fifty for a one-way trip and for the nearly five million people who use it on a daily basis it's faster than buses taxis or cars we view ourselves as the lifeblood of the city of New York if the subway doesn't run the city in New York doesn't work Larry Reuter is the president of the MTA he supervises all the public transportation in New York City including the subway if you could slice Manhattan the island of Manhattan right down the middle what would you see down underneath the streets oh the city in Manhattan it is the most complicated maze that you've ever imagined in your life between steam lines heavy-duty electrical tension lines sewer lines water lines then obviously the foundation that these huge skyscrapers kind of intermingled between all of that is our subway system it's like a city underneath the city and with 46,000 employees working down there and 4.7 million people you can imagine it's bigger than most cities every day the New York subway system isn't one system it's actually three the first section which snakes beneath Manhattan was completed in 1904 two others were later built connecting Manhattan to the boroughs of Brooklyn the Bronx and queens today all three have been joined together and are run by the MTA the Metropolitan Transit Authority daily users of the subway rush in and out of stations and on and off trains without even looking around them that's because New Yorkers know the subway and it's confusing maze of 22 different lines like the back of their hands going behind closed doors here gave me a unique opportunity to stop look around and ask questions often what I found was not what I had expected first of all we've all heard stories about homeless people living underground in subway tunnels but crackdowns by NYPD transit police have moved them out and as for crime in the last 10 years the crime rate in the subway has actually dropped by 70% the person standing next to you on the train platform may well be an undercover police officer transit police in and out of uniform patrol the stations and the trains every day and the barely audible voices you hear over the loudspeakers you might think they're recordings but they're not they're generated by announcers at one of the subways 75 regional control towers F train approaching York Street thank you for writing with MP and what about those musicians who serenade commuters for tips I found out that they're only underground in the literal sense they're actually licensed by the MTA we don't want them too close to the edge of platforms are creating crowding their platforms and we also don't want them being so noisy you know that people can't hear the announcements so those that are bide by the rules we actually encourage them because people like that they like a break in their day but we want them to follow the rules so they don't cause us safety concerns as well the MTA's biggest safety concern a passenger falling onto the tracks and getting electrocuted although writing on to ordinary rails the train gets its power through contact with a third rail which carries 700 volts of electricity because there are no locomotives subway trains require this constant source of energy to keep things moving the subway never closes its doors but in the early morning hours from midnight to 6:00 a.m. while the city above sleeps the subway below becomes a beehive of activity every night a small army of workers in iridescent safety vests tackle the never-ending job of replacing worn-out track with the 75-ton trains riding the rails the steel tracks wear out at an accelerated rate because this system is a subway and we're underneath all of those water and sewer lines a lot of water and sewer gets into our subway and ultimately rust the rail and that causes the the rail to fatigue earlier than it should straight sections can last a year and a half but sharp curves may have to be replaced every three months the crews of sixteen called gangs must work quickly between trains when we see a train approaching everybody gets in a safe position safes up the tools themselves and we wait for the train to go through result isn't that a little scary to look up and see a train coming well you you just always assumed that the train is coming people day you don't assume the trains coming when it's going to get you the track sections wait 1300 pounds and must be lifted the old-fashioned way in a matter of seconds the new rail is in place and the track is ready for the next train although many of the nearly 50,000 MTA employees work underground headquarters is an aboveground office building in Brooklyn behind this closed door is the command center of the New York City subway system here MTA officers work around the clock coordinating the moves of more than 6,000 trains every day the command center is surprisingly low-tech it tss both coming to Joe Smith supervisors here communicate with train operators and station workers using a closed-circuit radio system an ordinary telephones in this place is where the decisions are made to figure out how to recover from any problems that occur on the system troubleshooting here includes everything from routing trains around stalled cars to dealing with derailments to fires and the tunnels with several million people underground at any given time emergencies are an inevitable part of life in this city beneath the city and planning for them is crucial how do you prepare for a major catastrophe we actually do a lot of drills every year on different types of emergencies so we're prepared on all of those eventualities four times a year behind closed doors the MTA stages emergency evacuation exercises tonight scenario a train fire New York police and firemen take part in these very realistic simulations emergency workers must tend to be injured while others get the passengers to safety MTA office workers play the role of the angry commuters the acting of the passengers may not be professional but the rescue workers take their roles very seriously they know that their work here will help them save lives if a real disaster should strike when we come back I find out what it takes to drive a subway train behind closed doors we'll continue in a moment here on Andy London continue here on Andy the New York subways electric bill is 140 million dollars a year not too surprising when you consider that daily travel is estimated at an amazing 1 million miles that's the equivalent of a train circling the earth 46 times a day keeping the nearly 5 million daily riders on time and on track is a full-time job for the 6,000 men and women working the trains it takes a minimum of 2 people to run a train a conductor and a driver the conductors are in charge of opening and closing the doors as well as making station announcements but it is the operators who physically move the trains I went behind closed doors with Shoshana hall who's been driving the e train for more than three years how much do you actually control and how much is controlled by a computer I controlled everything you control everything everything as far as speed and propulsion there's no computerized in fact Shoshana must apply constant pressure to the throttle by squeezing it where the train will stop this is to prevent a crash in the unlikely event of an operator heart attack or stroke the throttles nicknamed the Deadman maximum speed for the New York subway trains 45 miles per hour it just feels faster because of the noise and vibration a major concern for drivers over crowding on the train platforms especially during rush hour see like now that guy's steppin out over the line right now the line make me nervous well if he was directly on the edge it would make me nervous and I would blow the horn to alert him although previously a bus driver Shoshanna needed a new set of skills to drive the subway train she had to pass a mandatory six-week course which included classroom work and mastering the subway simulator I got into the driver seat for a trial run with instructor Charles to Ford oh do I steer the train is on the tracks it steers itself okay you just put apply power and brake at a cost of a million dollars apiece the mta's to state-of-the-art simulators allow students to get up to speed without endangering the lives of paying customers well they do have a cave no way we have people out there with speed guns and if you get caught going over speed you do get in trouble for drivers operating the trains Underground is relatively easy because it's a controlled environment the trick is driving the trains above ground where you might confront extreme weather conditions both day and night but with the flick of a switch the simulator enables students to practice driving through harsh winter snow and ice year-round this is harder that has seams is that a computer evaluated and graded my driving in the simulator okay you win over the speed limit it was something really did I speed all these times yes you did those are all my I just got one two three four five ten fifteen and you went 25 that was a little too fast twenty-five hundred fifteen oh okay I spent a short time in the simulator but student drivers must spend hours and achieve perfect scores before driving a real train be advised we have a visibility problem here on the line sequins are hard to see operate with extreme caution restricted speed while the mta's operators move the trains it's the job of another division entirely to keep them running when you think of Coney Island the first thing that comes to mind is the famous boardwalk but just a mile away is where the MTA maintains the Train I'm at the New York City Transit Complex in Coney Island since 75-acre facility is one of 13 locations where subway trains are stored repaired and refurbished at half-a-million square feet this one complex is as large as Yankee Stadium I was given a tour by general superintendent Frank Silesia for even a few minutes to pick up yeah that's why we have 88 over 80 overhead cranes that would do all the lifting behind these closed doors the MTA has gotten the art of fixing subway trains down to its science the trains dried right into the building giant cranes then pick them up like toys to separate the passenger compartments from the wheel assembly's two cars that day bring them in we roll the truck frames in here they completely disassembled them all the components are sensitive various shops we rebuild them put it back together for another six years to give me an appreciation for the specialized skills involved in maneuvering this heavy equipment the MTA agreed to let me operate the overhead crane the subway car that I would lift weight more than 70 thousand pounds and cost 1 million dollars so what do you physically do up there at that cream in oh it's almost like a video game I pretty much lift the trains like you would play a video game only it's the real thing with actually picking the trains up and put them in a location needed for the guys to work on to get to the cranes cramped cab I had to climb four stories up a metal ladder this might be a good time to get a trial run we have two joysticks okay this one here is our bridge it was the whole thing that way yes this one gives us our up-and-down all right the last thing we want to do is stop so knowing it and keep going cuz if you stop that starts you to swing let's go another speak oh it starts you to swing that's not a good thing not a good thing I'm gonna tell me when I say this doesn't stop okay let's go to the second speed go another turn yes stay on it don't let it go oh my god let it go let it go I moved the crane into position over the car that I would be lifting Tom step back into the driver's seat to hook this up according to his signal right there he has the few I don't so from this point on pretty much I have to go by his signal I watched as he skillfully lowered the cranes hooks which the grounds room below then attached to the cars body once everything was secure I returned to the controls a mere flip of the switch and the train began to rise right up okay so they're gonna stop on its own in order to move the train car to the other side of the warehouse we had to carry it over the top of a dozen others if we dropped it it would be a multi-million dollar disaster bringing about whenever heavy objects like entire train cars are being moved crane operators must sound an alarm to warn workers below once the car was in position I lowered it to the ground with the guidance of the crew below stay with it he's gonna shoot his hands out like a fire at a baseball game that's when you let them have to look at him not at anything else all those times my mother said those video games will amount to nothing thank you very cool intimidating at first like anything for the first timer coming up have you ever held $20,000 cash in your hand in a television first the MTA shows me the money and the super secure room where they count 7 million dollars where the passenger fares every day behind closed doors will continue moment here on Amy behind closed doors with Joan Lunden continues here on Andy for New Yorkers the subway is the great equalizer for it to take a plane anywhere they want and they still ride the subway you know it's just you never know who you're gonna run into at rush hour you're likely to see a Wall Street businessman in an Armani suit standing next to a student in a sweater and jeans it's always crucial I didn't think this subway I'd have to deal with the bus and I think it would take me a lot longer to get to work every day since the mid-1980s the number of people who use the New York subway has increased dramatically and with record ridership comes record profits so you're collecting millions of dollars every day how do you how do you get it from all those places we have what you've seen in the movie the money train we actually have trains that run out into the subway system collect the money for the station bring them into special tracks and get money into the money room so the money trains really do exist the money trains really do exist behind this closed doors but the New York City subway system calls the money room here every day the fares from the four point seven million passengers are collected and counted it has never before been seen on TV until now so this is a double door this is system personnel traffic one door must be closed before the next door can be opened that's like because they didn't want our program to compromise their security the MTA agreed to show me the money with certain ground rules we agreed not to film the money trains or reveal the location of the money room chief revenue officer al Putra even escorted me to a deep sub-basement where the money trains offload the cash each night the money trains arrived at this location lead from this location and complete their cycle of collections until 24 hours later start loading again armed guards deliver the money which is kept inside these locked rolling bins so these bins just keep rolling in hundreds of them how many bins does it take to hold seven million dollars seven million dollars is about thirty five bins then they're taken upstairs in heavily secured elevators once inside the money room the bins are unlocked then the bags inside are removed counted and signed for the bags are taken to the next room to be counted by a cashier it can take an entire eight-hour shift for a cashier to count the contents of just one bin most of the actual counting is done by machine there are absolutely no hand counts involved unless you receive mutilated money and can't go through the machine the bills are placed in groups of a thousand and then sealed inside plastic bags called bricks gone is a brick of tar you got a look at this okay it's just a brick of 20s this is $20,000 I think that's pretty amazing to most of us I don't know I don't think I've never held $20,000 each day behind these closed doors 500 cashiers supervisors and transporters handle 7 million dollars and most of it in $1 bills just how you deal with security inherently well security is really a series of roadblocks or hurdles there steps that we take to convince the average person that if they were to attempt a theft they wouldn't be successful and that's basically how you keep honest people honest you don't put them in a state of temptation individuals that count funds here work in pocketless jumpsuits when they report to work they deposit their valuables their wallets in small mailbox lockers now those lockers are also in a high security area so I watch their valuables as well but it eliminates the debate over whose money is where there's any money in this room belongs the New York City Transit the MTA has found that one of the most successful deterrence to theft is this their own eye in the sky system we have in excess of 200 cameras in this facility and unfortunately I'm like a little bit of the opinion you can't have too many you can only have too little the cameras are wired to this control room it wouldn't be possible for any one person or a group of people to watch all these cameras so the theory on this is that we record them and in the event we have an issue we have that data available and we can refer back to it and it's a very strong tool a very strong time once the day's money is counted it's taken to the bank for this part of the trip the MTA uses traditional armored cars probably have as many armored cars in some city has a systems with millions of New Yorkers dropping a dollar 50 at the turnstiles each time they get on the train the MTA grows as a staggering two and a half billion dollars a year what do you think would surprise people about what you do here the ease at which it appears to function but the difficult pleat that lies beneath the surface it seems like everything just runs here but in reality nothing would run here without a hell of a lot of hard work I found this to be true everywhere I went while behind closed doors in this city beneath the city from the workers in the tunnels to the officers in the command center from the operators who run the trains to the workers who manned the cranes it takes thousands of men who worked below to keep the city up above moving
