Breakdown of Проводник сказал, что чай будет позже, потому что вагон ещё не готов.
Questions & Answers about Проводник сказал, что чай будет позже, потому что вагон ещё не готов.
Here проводник means the train attendant / carriage attendant on a long-distance train, not an electrical conductor and not a tourist guide.
Russian проводник can mean different things depending on context:
- guide in some contexts
- conductor in physics/electricity
- train attendant on a train
Because the sentence mentions чай and вагон, the train meaning is the natural one here.
Сказал is the perfective past tense of сказать, and it means he said it as a completed act.
- сказал = he said / he told
- говорил = he was saying / he used to say / he spoke
In this sentence, the speaker is reporting one finished statement, so сказал fits best.