CTA ridership up 4%; so don't drive us away
The CTA proudly reports on its Web site that ridership is up almost 4% through the first five months of the 2005, compared to the same period in 2004.
"On an average weekday in May, CTA provided more than 1.5 million rides, with the bus system accounting for nearly one million of those rides, and the rail system providing slightly more than a half million. CTA is the second largest transit agency in the U.S. and operates seven rail lines and 150 bus routes in Chicago and 40 surrounding suburbs."
So, Frank Kruesi, wanna keep those riders? Don't subject them to the chaos they faced on trains lines Monday night.
Communicate. Tell supervisors what's going on, so they can tell customer assistants, so they can actually ASSIST customers.
While you're at it, how about getting some REAL bomb-sniffing dogs. The bored dogs who lethargically stroll past open rail car doors certainly aren't trained to sniff for explosives. Our clueless mayor and impotent CTA president should follow the lead of Milwaukee and reassign dogs from the airport to the CTA.
Finally, Congress should step up and provide more adequate funding for transit security.
According to Computer World magazine: "At a national level, the amount needed for such increased security measures is around $6 billion, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), a nonprofit group of 1,500 member organizations in Washington. So far, the public transportation industry has received only $250 million in federal security funding since 9/11, compared with more than $18 billion provided to the aviation industry, the APTA said in a statement released after the London bombings."
Now, THAT'S truly outrageous.
and how about a speaker system that works in case of chaos? that way you can actually understand what they're trying to tell you at CTA stations and you're not sitting on a train, in a station, for 15 minutes before you give up and exit, at which point you find out that the train wasn't going to move.
Posted by: robyn | July 20, 2005 at 09:18 AM
Unfortunately this "increase in ridership" will probably make them think they don't need to make any improvements, since more people are riding anyway!
Gah.
Posted by: Kathy | July 20, 2005 at 09:38 AM
I agree with robyn, it would be a nice touch if you could actually understand the announcements, rather than
"mmpthh guggl nwraz zat red line train shmmoo nerburdle swaynz"
Posted by: Matt | July 20, 2005 at 01:08 PM
Matt--
You're my new favorite poster.
Posted by: Kimberli | July 20, 2005 at 01:16 PM
I don't know... if you read SubText, you'll know that the CTA's operators are much more comprehensible than those on the NYC subway system...
As for the bomb-sniffing dogs--I agree that the rent-a-dogs are pretty useless, but I don't necessarily agree that we should have a knee-jerk reaction to the London bombings and divert our attention from air security to rail security. A primary focus of terrorism is the symbolic value of attacks, and it's far more meaningful to take down an airplane than to blow up an El train.
Posted by: tom sherman | July 20, 2005 at 01:44 PM
well in DC they recently spent a lot of money upgrading their security features, such as improving the speaker systems (so you can HEAR announcements), upgrading the video display screens on the platforms and actually training all their front-line employees to COMMUNICATE with customers during an emergency.
Think CTA can do something like that?
Posted by: Tim | July 20, 2005 at 02:24 PM
Why is it that when I ride the Blue Line southbound to Washington, I can watch a freaking Hummer commercial set up in the tunnel, but CTA can't put some of that advertising $$ into making their PA system AUDIBLE?
Posted by: JM | July 20, 2005 at 04:14 PM
Quick! Make sure more people read CTA tattler! Clearly those additional 6 million people must be totally WRONG about the value of CTA to their daily lives. Set them straight and have them read all of the reasons why people are leaving CTA in droves.
Posted by: HolyMoly! | July 21, 2005 at 10:29 PM
If I see one more of the bomb/drug sniffing dogs napping next to their human counterpart on the train...UGH...
what's the point?
Posted by: Matty McMattMatt | July 21, 2005 at 11:26 PM
Leaving the CTA in droves? I guess HolyMoly missed the post about the 4% INCREASE in ridership. I think for most of us, the relatively minor inconveniences discussed on this site are not nearly enough to drive us to abandon the CTA.
Posted by: Matt | July 22, 2005 at 08:47 AM