CTA Tattler

Huberman's plan to improve communications with CTA riders, safety

At Tuesday's press conference where CTA President Ron Huberman the DriveCam system to monitor and evaluate bus drivers' diving behavior, he also unveiled plans to improve rider safety and communication.

  "After reviewing the circumstances of two recent incidents on our rail system, and completing a full debrief that included interviewing employees, reviewing protocols and getting customer feedback, it is clear to me that the CTA must improve our response to emergencies – with a renewed focus on communicating to our customers and ensuring that their needs are responded to as promptly as possible,” said Huberman.

He outlined these steps to improve safety and communications:

• Forming a task force made up of police, fire, OEMC and CTA to systematically review all of CTA’s emergency protocols to ensure they are up to date and focused on safety and ensuring CTA is communicating with customers.
• Re-training employees on communications and safety protocols starting with managers at the CTA’s control center.
• Scheduling a series of training exercises.
• Establishing a safety hotline for employees to report any safety-related conditions that they observe.
• Conducting an independent review of command and control systems.

In his remarks at the press conference, Huberman also noted that "one example of a new protocol that we will be implementing this week is quickly boarding additional CTA personnel onto trains that are stuck between stations…. Their sole responsibility will be to communicate with customers….and to assist individuals."

Bravo, Huberman. These are the kinds of changes we riders are looking for from you.

Click on the continuation to read the full text of Huberman's remarks on the subject of safety and communication with riders.

(Here's the text of Huberman's remarks at Tuesday's press conference):

When I came onboard the CTA 10 weeks ago, I committed that safety would be a top priority.   

After reviewing the circumstances of the two recent incidents on our rail system, and completing a full debrief that included interviewing employees, reviewing protocols and getting customer feedback…….

it is clear to me that the CTA must improve our response to emergencies – with a renewed focus on communicating to our customers……and ensuring that their needs are responded to as quickly as possible. 

The incidents that I am referring to occurred over the 4th of July celebrations – the first being our response to the power outage that occurred on the elevated lines on July 3rd, following the fireworks.

And the more recent incident of last Saturday night when a suicidal man shut down service on the Red Line for two hours.

From a technical standpoint, CTA staff did a number of things right when it responded to these incidents, handling the cause of the delay and putting alternative service into place. 

However, from the customer satisfaction standpoint, we didn’t perform.

I want our ridership to know that I am committed to improving our response to customers in these types of incidents, both in terms of restoration of service as well as customer safety and communication.

In both incidents, passenger needs took a back seat and I am very unhappy about that .... and I apologize to our riders…

After the July 3rd incident…I used the word inconvenience to refer to the experience of our customers on that night…..I was wrong…..it was clearly a hardship….and a scary incident for those riders who were on the trains……words matter….and actions matter……and the CTA needs to perform better…..

We have to be able to address service restoration and take better care of our passengers at the same time. 

The CTA is putting in place new protocols that will ensure that we are communicating and tending to passengers needs more quickly and effectively……One example of a new protocol that we will be implementing this week is quickly boarding additional CTA personnel onto trains that are stuck between stations….their sole responsibility will be to communicate with customers….and to assist individuals. 

This is just one example of many protocols that are currently being reviewed and updated to ensure the safety of our riders.  At my request, staff has developed a series of steps to improve the CTA's response to emergencies.

The first step is the formation of a task force made up of police, fire, OEMC and CTA….. this task force is kicking off tomorrow and will be systematically going through all of CTA’s emergency protocols….

And reviewing them to ensure they are up to date and are focused on safety and ensuring we are communicating with customers…in some cases, this may mean creating new protocols. 

The second step is re-training our employees on communications and safety protocols…..the first group to go through training will be the managers at the CTA’s control center…..with training beginning later this week….

The third step we are taking is setting up a series of training exercises…..both table top and field exercises…..As we all learned after 9-11, the best way to ensure that during an emergency everyone knows what to do and how to do it is through practice. 

And that is what we will be doing. 

The fourth step is a new safety hotline.  The CTA has 11,000+ employees…that’s a lot of practical expertise that we can do a better job of tapping.

When CTA employees see any conditions that might be safety related….they will have the ability to report it directly to CTA's safety team via a phone hotline…..avoiding the bureaucracy of going through a formal chain of command…..we believe this will help us more effectively identify potential safety risks early on. 

The fifth step is bringing on board an independent expert to review our command and control systems…Retired Chicago Police Commander Neil Sullivan, who has extensive command and control expertise, as well as a background in homeland security issues….will bring a fresh set of eyes to review our protocols………and make recommendations……

There are other steps we are taking internally, primarily relating to our incident command structure and our staffing during emergencies.  We are also holding debriefings after every incident to discuss what went right and what went wrong.   

And I expect to see improvements. 

As I have made very clear to staff following these most recent incidents, we cannot measure our response just on our ability to diagnose a problem and implement a solution. 

Every employee, from the train operator to the person handling calls in the control center, to the staff responding to the scene – have to keep the needs of riders in the forefront.