If it's not the delays or the crowds, it's something else.
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But Eyewitness News Reporter Jim Dolan found a train operator who is helping ease that ride by giving commuters something to smile about.
With just a few weeks on the job as a conductor in the New York City Transit Authority - you know, the beleaguered subway system, where trains break down and derail and seem to exist only to frustrate millions of people every day? - everyone seems to like Lemuel Hunter.
"It started out as boredom," he said.
It all goes by, the numbing commute in a routine blur, the trains, the people, who notices any of it...until you do.
Hunter wasn't prepared, when he started, for how routine it all is. So he decided to mix it up.
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"I've looked at the crowd, I have children, I have middle-aged people, I have elderly people and I'll go, 'This train is a number 1 and it goes up to Van Cortlandt Park, step in and stand clear,'" Hunter demonstrated in his iconic style.
He's still confined by information he has to get out, whatever stop it is and where the train is headed.
"I have policies and procedures to follow so I just tweak it and play with it," Hunter said.
Yeah, he tweaks it. He raps it!
When was the last time you saw anyone take a moment to thank a conductor?
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"It just kind of made me happy because he's having fun with it," said Alice, a passenger.
For Hunter, the raps break up the routine a bit, and he loves the reaction he gets.
Thursday night, he was on a 1 train, but he moves around a bit because he's still new, and he still believes in what we all learned in elementary school.
"They get off the train and they say, 'Oh my God that just made my day!' and to put a smile on people's faces, what does that cost?" Hunter said.
On the 1 train, it's just the price of a token.