Quiet Car Lorenzo sign.JPG

Conductor Lorenzo Dukes posts signs marking this as one of NJ Transit's Quiet Cars.

(Saed Hindash/For Inside Jersey)

By JOE LAPOINTE

I

nto the Quiet Car one sunny Monday morning bounced three energized young women wearing Yankees shirts, Yankees jackets and Yankees pins.

Their clothing flattered their physiques. Two wore sunglasses over the bills of their caps.

This was Opening Day — and, coincidentally, April Fools Day. The train would make a few more stops until it disgorged most of its passengers at the Frank Lautenberg transfer station at Secaucus.

Until now, silence, as usual, had prevailed in this morning rush-hour Quiet Car, the first car on the Pascack Valley train line to Hoboken. But the new passengers changed the mood. All were blissfully unaware they had entered a Quiet Commute zone.

So, they gabbed loudly and laughed heartily while sipping from bottles of beer. They cursed mildly, the way young women sometimes do when they drink beer just after 9 a.m. on a Monday.

“Wanna go to dinner after?”

“I dunno. Every time I go to a day game, my head hits the pillow at 8 p.m.”

(Psssst! Lady! Maybe it’s the morning beer!)

One announced, “I love those subway train races on the scoreboard.” The others nodded agreement and discussed which subways they root for. They assessed the Yankees’ injuries and prospects for the season. They spoke of sunshine and good times.

The other passengers glanced at them, then at the conductor when he showed up to punch their tickets. Would he ask them to either keep quiet or vacate the Quiet Car? He did neither. Either he didn’t hear them or pretended not to.

In most circumstances, at this point, a Quiet Car passenger might either ask the conductor to enforce the Quiet Commute policy (a strategy recommended by NJ Transit) or tell the loud travelers to pipe down (discouraged by NJT, which does not advocate vigilante justice).

But these passengers — mostly men — chose neither option in the half-filled car. A few made eye contact, shrugged their shoulders, shook their heads or smiled.

After all, the ride was nearly over and most seemed to enjoy the female version of Larry, Moe and Curly, without the violence. Just a little light entertainment on a Monday morning.

Commuters in the Quiet Car use the time to read, rest or relax.

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his incident was not a typical scene among dozens observed over several months while riding the Quiet Cars of NJ Transit.

For the most part, the Quiet Cars are relatively silent and more crowded than the rest of the rush-hour trains because people like them.

Quiet Cars are either the first or last cars of most trains (and, on some lines, both) when large groups of riders travel toward New York in the morning and away from New York in the afternoon.

NJT started Quiet Commute as a limited experiment in 2010, and it was phased in permanently for most lines by 2011.

“The initiative has clearly enhanced the customer experience,” John Durso Jr. of NJ Transit said in an e-mail. He called the Quiet Commute program “a clear, resounding success.”

Durso offered data on feedback from riders for a 90-day period in early 2013. He said 99 complaints were registered “and most focused on the desire for greater enforcement.”

Express trains — with regular daily customers and fewer stops — tend to have the quietest Quiet Cars. But enforcement, announcement and even awareness of the Quiet Car policy can vary drastically from conductor to conductor.

Some find the Quiet Car an extra burden. Rarely are there any signs in the Quiet Cars identifying them for what they are. A conductor might make a Quiet Car announcement on the speaker system. Then again, he or she might not.

One of the best at it is Lorenzo Dukes, conductor of the 4:07 p.m. Jersey Avenue Express out of New York’s Penn Station.

“Please keep your tone to a whisper,” Dukes says over the car’s speaker system, his voice like the late-night disc jockey who plays the mellowest jazz. “If, in any event, you can’t keep quiet, please exit the Quiet Cars.”

On the ceiling of his Quiet Car are attached several “Quiet Commute” signs that show an index finger over closed lips in the “Shhhhhh!” signal.

The signs tell Quiet Car riders to refrain from cell phone use, disable sound features on mobile devices and laptops, conduct conversation in subdued voices and maintain low headphone volume. And Dukes follows through.

“That’s just me,” Dukes says. “I don’t like people making noise in my Quiet Car. I take the Quiet Car seriously.” But he enforces the policy with a light touch. Rather than embarrass talkers by scolding them, Dukes simply points to the sign above their heads and whispers, “I prefer you whisper.” Sometimes, he hands them the same message printed on a business card.

Dukes, somewhat taller than most conductors, wears his uniform and shirt clean, pressed and starched. His long dreadlocks hang in neat rows down his back.

“I like everyone to get off work to relax without noise and racket of cell phones and kids crying or loud talking,” Dukes says.

Most people quickly cooperate, he says, and the feedback he hears from his regulars encourages him. “Basically, they tell me, ‘I really like the way you conduct yourself.’ ”

Not all conductors are as vigilant or as aware. On the same platform as Dukes’ train — this was afternoon rush hour on March 18 in Secaucus — comes the train to Ridgewood.

When asked the location of his Quiet Car, a conductor points to it and says, “It was quiet when we left Hoboken. That’s as far as I’m going to go. I’m not going to guarantee anything now.”

At least he knew he had a Quiet Car. Others are sometimes confused. Before the 5:40 express leaves Secaucus for Spring Valley on Feb. 11, one conductor is asked, “Does this train have a Quiet Car?” and he responds, “No.”

Then he walks back a few cars to double-check with another conductor who assures him that the train has no Quiet Car.

But soon the second conductor walks briskly back and says to the first conductor and the inquiring passenger: “Sorry. Back car.”

Often a sign is the only thing informing riders that they are in a Quiet Car.

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pot interviews at several stations support Durso’s research about customers wanting more enforcement. A man waiting in Secaucus who identifies himself as “Let’s leave it at ‘Ken’” says, “I don’t like them” because conductors are inconsistent.

“It’s a volatile situation,” Ken says. “You make a peep and people freak out.”

Ken says he once took a train on which a woman inadvertently boarded a Quiet Car with four children, who made a lot of noise. People glared at her, Ken says, and he feared hostile words might be exchanged.

Because she didn't get the hint, he says, he took it upon himself to quietly explain the situation. The woman thanked him and took the children to another car.

“People would respect it more if the conductors enforced it,” says Ken, a burly man wearing a Mets’ cap and a light windbreaker.

Ben Weintraub of Nanuet, N.Y., says he has noticed in the morning rush hour that a group of people will leave the station shelter even in bad weather to wait as a group at a spot up the track. That is where the Quiet Car usually stops and they want in.

Melissa Nobles, who also commutes from Nanuet, says she prefers the Quiet Car because “it’s a good way to unwind between work and home.” Indeed, when Quiet Car policy is enforced, you can hear passengers breathing and sometimes snoring.

But, she adds: “Inevitably, there’s someone on a cell phone. It’s so incredibly rude.”

Two young women who give their names as Shari and Jackie say they are from Rockland County, N.Y., and have sometimes broken the Quiet Car rules because they like to talk to each other.

“I’ve been shushed on this train,” Shari says. “I got a little embarrassed.”

Some passengers are pleasantly surprised by the Quiet Commute policy. One was Paul Brotze, an airline pilot who lives near Baltimore and traveled to Manhattan one May day from Hamilton.

He boarded at 8:16 a.m. not knowing he was in a Quiet Car until he heard the announcement.

“I wasn’t going to move,” Brotze says. “I generally seek out an atmosphere like that.” So Brotze closed his eyes and slept most of the way until the train pulled into New York Penn Station at 9:21 a.m.

“It makes sense,” he says of the Quiet Commute. “It’s a great concept.”

Brotze says the concept also is an issue with airlines, which tell passengers to turn off their cell phones before takeoff. Technically, people could use them in flight, he says.

"But a lot of people don't want that intrusion," he says.

Sometimes, on the train, the intrusion comes not from fellow passengers but rather from railroad employees. On a May train bound for Hoboken, the conductor walked to the front of the Quiet Car to chat with the engineer with the cab door open.

The two talked at length, loudly, for about 10 minutes, their voices carrying at least a dozen rows back into the Quiet Car space. It was a casual, friendly conversation; there were no emergencies or urgent messages regarding the train.

But, sometimes, everything works just as it should. On a different trip on the same line in mid-March, a large man wearing a brown leather jacket, a black baseball cap and earrings takes a seat in the Quiet Car and begins loud conversation on his cell phone.

Some passengers look at each other and watch while the young conductor punches the man’s ticket without reprimanding him. As the conductor begins to leave the car, a man in the final row asks him to speak to the cell phone user.

The young conductor immediately responds, asking the cell-phone man to stop talking or change cars. The man quickly changes cars.

“Sorry about that,” the conductor says to several remaining riders. “I’m just subbing today.”

When the train reaches Secaucus, many passengers get off, including the big fellow with the leather jacket, the black cap, the earrings and the cell phone.

As the others move quickly to the stairs and escalators to catch their next trains, the big guy takes his time. He stands on the platform, lights up a cigarette and inhales deeply — right next to the “No Smoking” sign.

QUESTIONS ABOUT KEEPING QUIET

Q. What is the point of the Quiet Cars?

“Quiet Commute Cars are intended to provide a subdued environment for customers who wish to refrain from cell phones and are willing to disable the sound features on computers, games and other electronic devices,” says NJT spokesman JohnDurso Jr.

Q. I Is the Quiet Car a law?

No. It is a policy. NJT urges customers to cooperate.

Q. Which trains have Quiet Cars?

Rush-hour trains toward New York in the morning and away from New York in the afternoon. Generally, that means 6 a.m. until 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.

Q. How many Quiet Cars are on each train?

For those traveling into and out of New York Penn Station, it is the first and last car. For trains traveling into and out of Hoboken, it is the first car in the morning and the last car in the evening.

Q. How do you know if a train has a Quiet Car?

Announcements are often made. Also, if your train schedule has the letter “Q” over the “Peak Hours” column on the timetable, that means “Quiet.” And if the conductor is diligent, signs are attached to the ceilings of Quiet Cars.

Q. Where did this idea start?

In late 1999 on Amtrak, according to NJT.

Q. Should passengers enforce the policy on their own?

It’s not a good idea. Originally, in 2010, NJT Executive Director James Weinstein said in The Wall Street Journal “We’re going to rely on self-enforcement here. Our plan is not to turn our conductors into hall monitors.” But that advice has changed.

Q. What changed it?

According to The Wall Street Journal, police had to be called after a shoving match over Quiet Car enforcement delayed a train for 30 minutes. The problem began when passengers tried to enforce the policy on their own.

Q. So, how does a passenger deal with cell-phone yakkers or other loud people on a Quiet Car?

You should ask the conductor to enforce the rule, according to NJT.

Q. Do conductors enforce it?

Some do. Others are not as diligent.

Q. Are there any trains on NJT without a Quiet Car?

The Atlantic City Line has no defined peak periods and no Quiet Cars.

Q. If you don’t like the policy, either way, what can you do?

NJT says it conducts “We Are Listening” forums for customers at major rail hubs in New York, Hoboken, Newark and Trenton.

This story first appeared in Inside Jersey's November 2013 issue.

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