Pros
Pay is decent. Most coworkers are friendly. Benefits. Pension.
Cons
You are a work horse. You are disposable. They only pretend to care about employees. Complaints are brushed aside. High liability. If anything happens they look to blame operators. Some very nasty treatment by some in positions above operators. You keep the company going but they don't support you. You are resented by passengers who are upset the trains are there despite having just rode the train. Customers will purposefully delay your train others will get mad at you for the train being delayed. There isn't sufficient time to get to end of line on time. Signals may work but traffic doesn't wait for the train. There are traffic signals that work against train movement. Many cars breaking traffic laws affecting trains. Accidents. Signals malfunction. Gates malfunction. Stressful situations. Cars and pedestrians go in front of trains without looking and without favorable signals. Trains malfunction. Trespassers can be found almost anywhere at any time. People will expect you to stop the train on a dime. They will walk, run, drive bikes, scooters, and cars in front of it. They expect you to stop in time when they aren't paying attention or being unsafe. The breaks can be really bad but scheduling and management won't change it. They don't like you speaking up for yourself. Without the pension and union this company would not be worth working for. There are a lot of things wrong that won't be fixed.