---
title: "Subway and Streetcar Operator"
description: "Operate subway or elevated suburban trains with no separate locomotive, or electric-powered streetcar, to transport passengers. May handle fares."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/subway-and-streetcar-operator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Subway and Streetcar Operator

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-4041 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-4041.00

Operate subway or elevated suburban trains with no separate locomotive, or electric-powered streetcar, to transport passengers. May handle fares.

Also advertised as: Combined Rail Operator; Light Rail Operator; Light Rail Train Operator; Light Rail Vehicle Operator (LRV Operator); Rail Operator; Rapid Transit Operator (RTO); Streetcar Operator; Train Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $86,380 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $41.53/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $55,180 to $90,140, with the middle half between $61,980 and $90,140
- **Total US employment:** 10,200
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 10,200 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $55,180 |
| 25th | $61,980 |
| 50th (median) | $86,380 |
| 75th | $90,140 |
| 90th | $90,140 |
| Mean (average) | $77,170 |

### Pay by state

The 13 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MD | $92,420 | $88,053 | 480 |
| CA | $78,680 | $71,062 | 900 |
| WA | $77,020 | $71,973 | 320 |
| FL | $72,860 | $70,455 | 130 |
| NJ | $68,970 | $63,389 | 140 |
| MN | $65,410 | $66,325 | 140 |
| NC | $62,590 | $66,355 | 110 |
| VA | $61,970 | $61,293 | Not published by BLS |
| GA | $59,570 | $61,863 | 300 |
| TX | $58,780 | $60,562 | 240 |
| UT | $58,620 | $59,294 | 970 |
| MO | $53,030 | $58,392 | 70 |
| MI | $41,710 | $43,350 | 40 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 400 jobs, or +3.7%. About as fast as average: 3.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 86.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.9% |
| Some College Courses | 4.6% |

## What the work involves

- Operate controls to open and close transit vehicle doors.
- Drive and control rail-guided public transportation, such as subways, elevated trains, and electric-powered streetcars, trams, or trolleys, to transport passengers.
- Report delays, mechanical problems, and emergencies to supervisors or dispatchers, using radios.
- Regulate vehicle speed and the time spent at each stop to maintain schedules.
- Make announcements to passengers, such as notifications of upcoming stops or schedule delays.
- Greet passengers, provide information, and answer questions concerning fares, schedules, transfers, and routings.
- Monitor lights indicating obstructions or other trains ahead and watch for car and truck traffic at crossings to stay alert to potential hazards.
- Complete reports, including shift summaries and incident or accident reports.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Transportation — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Control Precision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Rate Control — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.91 |
| C — Conventional | 4.26 |
| S — Social | 2.80 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.28 |
| I — Investigative | 1.37 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 83.4 |
| ISFJ | 79.8 |
| ESTJ | 77.9 |
| ESFJ | 66.8 |
| ISTP | 64.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Locomotive Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/locomotive-engineer) — median $81,410
- [Railroad Conductor and Yardmaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-conductor-and-yardmaster) — median $78,000
- [Bus Driver, Transit and Intercity](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-driver-transit-and-intercity) — median $59,050
- [Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operator and Locomotive Firer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-brake-signal-and-switch-operator-and-locomotive-firer) — median $68,840
- [Taxi Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/taxi-driver) — median $42,100
- [Rail Yard Engineer, Dinkey Operator, and Hostler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-yard-engineer-dinkey-operator-and-hostler) — median $60,600
- [Shuttle Driver and Chauffeur](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shuttle-driver-and-chauffeur) — median $37,290
- [Air Traffic Controller](https://nuecareer.com/careers/air-traffic-controller) — median $148,080
- [Truck Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/truck-driver) — median $58,640
- [Light Truck Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/light-truck-driver) — median $44,860

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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