Thirty Seconds Over Broadway Junction

These people are going to get really, really good at gauging commercial breaks:

In three years, the easiest job in New York will be L train operator — whose only job will be pushing a button every 30 seconds to prove he’s still breathing.

The trains will be so automated, they’ll be able to start, stop, speed up and slow down without any human help.

The operator will take over only in an emergency — such as a passenger falling off a platform, or if the automatic system fails.

Normally, the operator’s only duty will be pushing the button to prove to the system he’s awake and capable of springing into action.

If he or she doesn’t push the button, the train will come to a stop.

And then there’s the concept of the “dead man’s switch”:

It’s the updated version of the current “dead man’s switch” — which is part of the train operator’s controls.

Unless the operator keeps downward pressure on it, the brakes engage immediately.

. . .

Train operators say the dead man’s switch is most often activated when operators fall asleep at the controls.

Often, when that happens, “they report that there was no cause for the brakes to be [activated], and that maybe someone pulled the brake,” one veteran train operator said.

“Sometimes, it is released by accident. If you hold it down hard and then let it up a couple of inches, it will go off.”