Paul Pesante, a longtime conductor on Metro-North's Hudson Lines, works the ones and twos to ensure it's always a good one.
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The Queens native doesn't just call out the stops, he remixes them into a witty rhyme -- one stop at a time.
"Sometimes, I just think about it simply on my train ride into work," Pesante tells Eyewitness News.
The conductor's rhyme-slinging began with an attempt to pump the brakes on a nuisance problem.
"It started since 2019," he said. "It was a simple rhyme about the feet on the seat, and I turned it into 'keep the feet off the seats.'"
Pesante's rhymes picked up momentum during the pandemic.
"It would go, 'Ladies and gentlemen, when you ride aboard a train, there's one thing that we ask: everyone onboard wear a mask,'" he shared.
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If you let Pesante tell it, he's always had a way with words.
"When I was in school, it was something I was good at," he said. "Writing rhymes, writing poems."
But his show, as he calls it, has picked up steam and gaining him quite the popularity.
"I am a train man for life," he said, quelling the chatter about whether he plans to switch gears into a rap career. "I'm on the rails for life, well, until I retire."
Until then, he strives to leave a lasting impression.
"If I could do that for anybody and everybody on my trains, you know what? Consider that a job well done," he said.
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Pesante and his rhymes can be enjoyed on the Hudson Line Monday through Friday, from 5 a.m. to about 2 p.m.
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