MTA Workers Seek to Join the Green Team : Forty-Five Employees Are Undergoing Training for Jobs on the New Rail Line, Which Is Scheduled to Begin Operation This Summer

By JEFF KASS

May 21, 1995 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Not all Metro Lines are created equal, explains Jesus Ruiz.

Ruiz, who is training to become a Metro Green Line operator, can tick off the reasons for leaving his job operating Blue and Red line rail cars after five years.

On the street-level Blue Line, Ruiz said, trains collide with wayward cars and pedestrians all too often. And on the underground Red Line, “The tunnel gets to you,” he said. “It’s all cement.”

Ruiz is one of 45 Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers, chosen on the basis of seniority and test scores, to enter the Green Line training program. The Green Line, set to open this summer, will whisk passengers from El Segundo to Norwalk in about 35 minutes along the center divider of the Century (105) Freeway. Three of its stations are in South Los Angeles.

Driving back and forth in the middle of the freeway, eight hours a day, is not everyone’s idea of a good time. And interest in operating rail cars has steadily dropped since the Blue Line opened five years ago.

But Ruiz, 49, is willing to stay up till 1 a.m. studying the 137-page Green Line rule book because it is his ticket out of the transportation doldrums. “I can’t peel rubber,” Ruiz, who once drove buses, said of the Green Line. “But I can peel steel.”

Ruiz said he has never hit anyone while driving the Blue Line, but he recalls the time a woman stood in front of his train. Because he could not swerve his rail car out of the way like a bus, Ruiz could only look into the woman’s eyes. She jumped off the track at the last minute, Ruiz said, but the memory lingers.

“When you’ve looked at a person who wants to commit suicide,” Ruiz said, “it’s a very cold look, like they’re defying life.”

Mary Barrios, who drove a Cypress bus route for 11 years before her Green Line training, recalls a man who once casually asked, “What would happen if I pulled out a gun and tried to rob you?” Barrios pointed out she has a silent alarm to summon help, and the curious passenger left it at that.

For Ruiz, the Green Line’s unobstructed path along the freeway median means fewer cars, people and bicycles to interfere with his work. For Barrios, the Green Line’s cockpit is a shelter from wacky riders.

But the Green Line may have other problems. Rescue vehicles, for example, may have a harder time reaching a train that is stuck in the middle of the freeway. That’s why Green Line operators are expected to be more self-sufficient than bus drivers and other rail operators. They are trained in everything from cardiopulmonary resuscitation to restarting the circuit breakers on electric engines.

“If the Green Line breaks down, you are responsible, and people can’t go anywhere,” Ruiz said. “But if the bus breaks down, people can go get a hamburger.”

Green Line operators must also be able to pass a standard physical and lift their own weight in case they need to climb atop the train for repairs, said training supervisor Richard Flores.

Operators must also know how to move track switches by hand, and learn the hand signals for slowing down, stopping and backing up that rail workers flash to train operators.

Operators have no set speech to give to passengers, but they should be informative and friendly. And no jokes. “A professional that wants to tell jokes,” supervisor Flores said, “should be on stage.”

At the station, operators will keep the doors open for 20 seconds, but no longer, even if they see you running toward the car. Flores said, “We don’t want to encourage running.”

Training for those coming from the bus lines takes seven weeks, with about two weeks spent in the classroom. Operators from other rail lines train for about two weeks.

Senior rail operators and bus drivers earn about $40,000 a year. But bus drivers, with about 200 routes to choose from, can more easily clock in overtime, and sometimes earn up to $80,000 a year. Rail operators, with only three lines scheduled for operation, have fewer opportunities for overtime.

Officials say that may be one reason for the drop in applications for rail car operators. Before the Blue Line opened in 1990, 700 bus drivers clamored for a chance to operate the rail cars. Three years later, only 475 operators signed up for duty on the Metro Red Line. The Green Line received 350 applications.

Another possible reason for the decline in rail applications is that the novelty of riding the rails has worn off.

Yet there is no shortage of rail line operators, and Ruiz, for one, was excited as he stepped into a Green Line train last week. Facing him was a large black panel with green, blue and yellow buttons, including one for bells and one for horns. A large red button is for emergency stops. Ruiz can control the car’s speed, but cannot go over 55 m.p.h.

About three years ago, officials discussed making the Green Line trains driverless, but the proposal died because of concerns over cost, union opposition and psychology--people don’t always feel comfortable hopping on a train with no conductor--authorities said.

“I don’t think you would find a sane person in Los Angeles County who would get on a box going 55 m.p.h. without someone at the controls,” said Goldy Norton, a spokesman for the United Transportation Union, which represents MTA operators.

Recently, MTA authorities scheduled a 30-minute test run, starting from the Marine Avenue station in Hawthorne, to show off the Green Line.

But Flores refused to allow a reporter on board for the duration. Instead, he gave Ruiz permission to take the reporter and a handful of MTA workers on a 150-foot joy ride. Ruiz overshot it by about 10 feet. But he never missed a beat.

“You have now reached your final destination,” he said, his voice booming over the car’s intercom. “I hope that you enjoyed your ride as much as I enjoyed serving you.”