Their colleagues across the Hudson River, the conductors on the New Jersey Transit railroad, don’t have it any better. “You’re getting yelled at. You’re getting smart remarks. People don’t want to pay,” said a conductor on various lines servicing northern New Jersey. If someone won’t pay, the conductor shrugs and moves on. “I’m not a bouncer,” he said.

It’s a tough time to work on the rails that move millions of people to and around New York City every day. Subway delays and disruptions have become expected and planned for in one’s schedule, while the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit, two of the nation’s busiest commuter lines, have been dogged by derailments and have warned riders to be prepared for a “summer of hell” as Amtrak repairs deteriorating infrastructure at Pennsylvania Station.

Riders react, every day, and those reactions are not aimed at the management of the transit agencies or at the two governors, Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey, who control them. Subway and train operators, conductors and station agents spoke of the toll of being the faces of their increasingly unreliable systems. They are voices grimly familiar to riders on the train, via vague announcements — “we should be moving shortly” — but not often heard speaking about their work. Their tribulations are lost in the complaints of the passengers.

Several of them described their existence as readily available punching bags, but only on the condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to be quoted without authorization from their employers.

Lynwood Whichard, a recording secretary with the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents subway workers, hears constant complaints from employees in the stations: “Verbally abused, cursed, spit on,” he said. “People are hostile.”