![Rush hour at Ueno 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Rush_hour_at_Ueno_02.JPG)
A pusher is a worker who pushes people onto the mass transportation vehicle at a crowded stop during the
rush hour
A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...
s.
Origins
New York City
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
conductors were well-known for using the phrase "step lively" to exhort passengers to clear space by the doors of
streetcars
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
and
subway cars during the early 20th century, dating back to the opening of the subway in 1904. "Step lively" was seen as an overly imperative phrase that "flusters the timid and uncertain and angers those who desire to be courteously treated".
''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' advocated the use of "press forward" instead of "step lively" in 1908.
Early legal precedent in New York held railway operators liable for injuries resulting from overcrowded platforms; since the operator controlled access to the platforms, they could limit the number of passengers on the platform and prevent crowds from pushing and potentially injuring passengers. Another New York decision held the operator would be blameless for the pressing action of the crowd, but noted that since the car had been subject to "forced augmentation" by an employee (the guard), the operator was held liable. In Boston, a court ruled the schedule and convenience of other passengers meant that efforts to minimize
station dwell time were justified, although physically packing passengers on trains was not mentioned.
A ''New York Times'' article from August 8, 1918, mentions subway guards and police trying to direct and push crowds onto trains operating along the new
42nd Street Shuttle
The 42nd Street Shuttle is a New York City Subway shuttle train service that operates in Manhattan. The shuttle is sometimes referred to as the Grand Central/Times Square Shuttle, since these are the only two stations it serves. The shuttle runs ...
service between
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
and
Grand Central. By the 1920s, pushers in the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
were known worldwide, but were not well-liked due to their reputation as "
sardine
"Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the Ital ...
packers".
New York City subway pushers are depicted in the 1941 biographical movie ''
Sergeant York'';
George Tobias
George Tobias (July 14, 1901 – February 27, 1980) was an American theater, film and television actor. He had character parts and supporting roles in several major films of Hollywood's Golden Age. He is also known for his role as Abner K ...
plays the character "Pusher" Ross, a soldier from New York City. In the film, "Pusher" has to explain his
nickname
A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...
to Alvin York – which he got because he pushes passengers onto the crowded subway cars during rush hours. The story takes place during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, which establishes that "Pusher" was a subway pusher in New York City prior to 1918. Also, in the
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...
cartoon ''
Hurdy Gurdy Hare
''Hurdy-Gurdy Hare'' is a 1950 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on January 21, 1950, and stars Bugs Bunny.
Plot
While Bugs is sitting in Central Park, he looks through the wanted a ...
'', Bugs dons a conductor's cap and pushes a gorilla while saying, "push in, plenty of room in the center of the car!", pausing to tell the audience "I used to work on the shuttle from Times Square to Grand Central". The cartoon was copyrighted in 1948 and released in 1950.
Japan
In Japan, pushers are known as . The term is derived from the verb , meaning "push", and the suffix , indicating "line of work." ''Oshiya'' ensure every passenger has boarded and does not get caught in the doors, as described during a CNN interview with Sandra Barron, an American living in Tokyo.
When pushers were first brought in at
Shinjuku Station
is a major railway station in the Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan. In Shinjuku, it is part of the Nishi-Shinjuku and Shinjuku districts. In Shibuya, it is located in the Yoyogi and Sendagaya districts. It is the world's busiest rai ...
, they were called , and were largely made up of students working part-time; currently, station staff and/or
part-time
Part-time can refer to:
* Part-time job, a job that has fewer hours a week than a full-time job
* Part-time student, a student, usually in higher education, who takes fewer course credits than a full-time student
* Part Time
Part Time (styliz ...
workers fill these roles during morning rush hours on many lines.
During the run-up to the
1964 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...
in Tokyo, a special issue of ''
LIFE
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine described a photograph by
Brian Brake
John Brian Brake (27 June 1927 – 4 August 1988) was a photographer from New Zealand.
Biography
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Brake was the adopted son of John Samuel Brake and his wife Jennie Brake (née Chiplin). He was raised initially at ...
as showing "the Tokyo commuter trains where riders are squashed aboard by white-gloved official pushers." In 1975, ''oshiya'' packed commuters into rush-hour trains that were filled to an average of 221 percent of designed capacity.
A 1995 ''New York Times'' article noted white-gloved ''oshiya'' were still being deployed during rush hours, but called them "tushy pushers", or .
Since 2000, rush-hour trains had become significantly less crowded, running at an average of 183 percent of capacity. By 2019, severe crowding has been largely eliminated on Japanese train lines outside of Tokyo. Train lines in Tokyo have had significant reductions in overcrowding and now run at an average of 163 percent of capacity. This was driven by increased capacity (a system-wide 60% increase in 2000 compared to 1970), and changing passenger demand dynamics caused by
stagnant growth since 1990s,
declining population and commuter incentives designed to make off-peak hour trains more inviting.
This led to a decline in the number of pushers needed and largely confining them to the Tokyo area on some still extremely congested lines.
Current use
China
At least three cities in China have employed professional train pushers. The
Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...
has hired employees to help pack commuters onto train carriages since 2008. On the
Shanghai Metro
The Shanghai Metro (; Shanghainese: ''Zaon6he5 Di6thiq7'') is a rapid transit system in Shanghai, operating urban and suburban transit services to 14 of its 16 municipal districts and to Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. Served as a part of Shangha ...
, trains running on
Line 8 at up to 170% of capacity during peak hours in 2010 have used volunteers to help fill carriages. In 2012, seven years after opening, crowds on
Chongqing Metro trains were so thick that pushers were used during peak hours.
Madrid Metro
In February 2017, Madrid hired "pushers" in its
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
to cope with increased numbers of passengers.
Line 8, which connects the
Madrid–Barajas Airport to Madrid's city center, was temporarily closed due to maintenance works, which caused a surge of passengers on other lines. In Spanish, subway pushers are literally called "pushers" (empujadores); they help passengers embark and make sure that carriage doors are properly closed. Some observers immediately made comparisons with the Japanese ''oshiya''.
New York City Subway
The
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
hires "platform controllers" to direct crowds to minimize platform dwell times, although their duties do not include physically moving passengers.
They perform similar duties as the subway guards, who performed similar duties in the subway through the 1940s.
Rhine-Main S-Bahn
Since 2015,
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
has been using pushers at
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
's main train station (
Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, also called Frankfurt Central Station and Frankfurt Main Station, is the busiest railway station in the German state of Hesse. Because of its location near the middle of Germany and usage as a transport hub for lo ...
) and at times at the
Messe (trade fair)
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
station and other highly frequented stations (e.g. Eschborn Süd). These platform attendants are called ''Einstiegslotsen'' (boarding guides; initially, they were called ''Fahrgastlenker'', i.e. "passenger steerers"). As it was considered indelicate to actually "push" people forward physically, as is standard procedure e.g. in Tokyo-Shinjuku station, the ''Einstiegslotsen'' try to avoid direct physical contact. They concentrate on boosting passenger entry and barring the access to the closing doors to stop people trying to enter the full train.
Notes
a. Crowding levels defined by the
:
:100% — Commuters have enough personal space and are able to take a seat or stand while holding onto the straps or hand rails.
:150% — Commuters have enough personal space to read a newspaper.
:180% — Commuters must fold newspapers to read.
:200% — Commuters are pressed against each other in each compartment but can still read small magazines.
:250% — Commuters are pressed against each other, unable to move.
References
External links
*
*
*
* {{cite web , url=http://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/08/subway-pushers-of-japan.html , title=Subway Pushers of Japan , date=24 August 2016 , author=Kaushik , website=Amusing Planet , accessdate=6 April 2017
Railway culture in Japan
Railway occupations
New York City Subway