Off the Rails

Darius McCollum has spent nearly half of his life driving trains and buses for New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and is arguably one of its best workers. However, he is not nor ever has been an MTA employee.

When he was a child, Darius was taken in by transit workers as a sort of "mascot," memorizing the entire transit system by the time he was just eight years old. This life-long obsession, coupled with undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome, would lead him to spent years in and out of jail for unlawfully operating trains and commuter buses, repairing train tracks, collecting fares, and even campaigning for higher wages and better working conditions.

Directed by Adam Irving, this moving documentary details Darius' life from early childhood, to his first arrest at 15, culminating in 30 arrests over his lifetime, and explores a system that has consistently indicted a man who simply wants to ride the rails.