They can talk with equal authority about everything from motormen's radio codes to the Malbone Street wreck of 1918 (97 killed in Brooklyn).
Graham, who took over from previous information commissioner Thomas in June, was answering questions arising from the Motorman inquiry into investigator Steve Whittamore, which turned 17,500 information requests from 305 journalists.
But the door from the motorman's cab did not open into a Manhattan-bound W train.
Once on the ground, Mr. Lozito grabbed his attacker around the waist, and the officers from the motorman's cab rushed to help.
But the show's heart is "Schwebebahn," a 12-minute video shot from the motorman's cab of a suspended monorail as it travels around, and above, Wuppertaal, Germany.
The transfer of the files, from Operation Motorman, a 2006 inquiry into the use of private investigators by newspapers, which documented the practices of Stephen Whittamore and associates, marks the widening of the phone hacking inquiry to the broader issue of paying for confidential information.
The police have arrested a Queens man who, they said, specialized in stealing from subway motormen.
There are many examples of questionable practices at the News of the World, all in the public domain – from the Operation Motorman inquiry into the use of private detectives, to the judge's comments about blackmail in the newspaper's sting on Max Mosley.
While walking home from work Thursday, Mr. Parks, a subway motorman, was attacked from behind by three men at 139th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, the police said.
Celeste Arthur, a traffic enforcement agent, was in the first car on her way home from work when the motorman began beeping his horn.
