Broken emergency button or inattentive motorwoman? CTA responds and acts swiftly
On Red Line run 802 last week, a woman in Car No. 2897 started having what appeared to be a seizure, and briefly lost consciousness. While some fellow passengers tried to attend to her, I got up and pressed the emergency call button. This was between Wilson and Sheridan at approximately 7:25 am - maybe a bit later.
There was no response from the motorwoman.
I pressed it again. And again. And again, after brief intervals. Each time I pressed it, I heard a beep. So four times I called for help and no call was answered.
By this time we were pulling into Sheridan and I thought the motorwoman might exit the cab and come investigate. But no.
Meanwhile, I gave up and went to talk to the stricken woman. She had regained consciousness at Sheridan. As we made our way to Addison and I asked her if she wanted medical assistance. She was clearly dazed at the very least. She said she didn't want me to call for help again because she didn't want to delay the whole train. I told her if she needed help we would get her some. Again she refused, saying she worked at Northwestern Hospital at the Chicago stop, and would see assistance there.
So fine. At least she wasn't seriously ill.
What was not fine was that the CTA had at least one problem -- either a defective emergency call button on car No. 2897, or an inattentive motorwoman who might have risked the life of this woman had she been sicker. More than half the train car was buzzing about why the motorwoman didn't respond.
So I wrote to my contact at the CTA, gave her the above details, and asked her what happened.
To her credit, she replied right away: "Thanks for the notification. Rail (operations) will check the rail car to see if the button is working. If it is, they will interview the operator. I'll let you know how we'll handle it once we determine which one was the problem."
Less than 24 hours later she had the answer: "Regarding the medical emergency you witnessed, the problem was with the call button in the rail car. The buttons are checked during periodic mechanical inspections. This particular car was inspected last week and the button was working. The car is being held out of service for further testing and repairs."
So there's lots of good news here:
- The afflicted woman was OK and made it to work.
- The motorwoman was NOT inattentive. She didn't hear the call due to a detective call button. (Of course, that's not so good news.)
- The CTA regularly inspects train cars; emergency call buttons are one tick on the inspection check list.
- If you see something, say something -- and if you do, the CTA will act on it quickly.
And you don't need your own CTA contact. Just call 1-888-968-7282, and/or write to ctahelp@transitchicago.com.
You mention that there is lots of good news here but I really don't see it that way. While it is great that the afflicted person got to work alright, there is a big problem here. Why are the call buttons not checked at the beginning of each run when the cars are linked together. As you said above if this woman needed immediate care or if there was a fire on the train, this would have quickly become an extremely dangerous situation. I am not impressed.
Posted by: Michael Pfammatter | October 23, 2007 at 09:22 AM
Yeah, and the CTA is just soooooo attentive to our complaints...and always calls you back, no matter how many years later it is.
Don't kid yourself. Your contact replies because of your blog and the number of people you reach, not for any other "customer service" reason.
Most of us would be lucky to have a direct line to the CTA.
Kevin
Posted by: Kevin | October 23, 2007 at 09:25 AM
Am I being too cynical in thinking the CTA might be covering itself? Easier to say the problem is with the car than with the motorman?
Posted by: Jacob Tomaw | October 23, 2007 at 09:31 AM
I absolutely agree with the above. Did you call as a regular person or did you mention your blog at all? Most people don't get calls back, some don't even get emails back.
And yes, this is an extremely dangerous situation. What if the train was stopped in a tunnel and there was a fire, or a dangerous person on the train threatening people? Any number of things. Call buttons should be checked at the beginning of every run if there's a possibility of them not working.
Posted by: Anna | October 23, 2007 at 09:43 AM
It's not good news that they check the buttons once a week. Such an important safety device should be checked every time a car is put into service for the day at minimum.
And congratulations on having enough clout to both have an inside contact, and for that contact to act immediately on your concern. But that's not good news. Good news would be that all of us can get the respect that you can by virtue of having a well-read blog.
And when the call button recieved no response, you should have been calling 911 on your cell phone. Repeatedly using a button that was not getting any response, and then simply giving-up on summonning help wasn't right. That's not good news, either.
And since when does someone who is "clearly dazed at the very least" competent to refuse medical assistance?
Perhaps people who don't care about other people, and who's only priority is to get to work on-time might see the fact that the train wasn't delayed to be "good news", but other than that, I don't see much good news.
We've got a train car that shouldn't have been in service, fellow riders who only go through the motions of "helping", and a beauracracy that only responds to a high-profile blogger by providing an inside contact who takes immediately action.
It's a sad day when that adds up to "lots of good news".
Posted by: Rusty | October 23, 2007 at 09:43 AM
I emailed ctahelp@chicagotransit.org a few weeks ago when there was a minor mechanical problem on a train that I couldn't get to the call button to report. I got a prompt, courteous reply within a few hours.
You people are as cynical as you are wrong.
Posted by: dbt | October 23, 2007 at 10:09 AM
I have mixed results with ctahelp@transitchicago.com. When I reported a missing bus stop sign last spring, I received a reply within two days (on a Sunday, actually) and the sign was replaced within a month.
However, last summer when I reported a rail car with a defective HVAC system, it took weeks for me to receive a reply. When I rode the car a couple months later, the HVAC was better but still not properly cooling the car.
Posted by: Kevin | October 23, 2007 at 10:24 AM
Kevin, apparently the "cta tattler" is just that, a tattler, stool pigeon, fink. I agree with you 95% of time. Naturally this is a good argument for conductors. The cta might find the intercom to be working, however, it might not have been that particular day. Or maybe there could have been a small problem in the coupling, making the intercom not trainline. Cta management will fault her for this, this is because for the most part, management does not respect the rank and file. In the future if you have a problem with any cta rail employee, especially those who work out of Howard St. Please drop me an e-mail, instead of embarassing anyone. so maybe no one will get in trouble unjustifily
Posted by: bill | October 23, 2007 at 10:57 AM
Rusty:
I'm cynical because of experience.
Unfortunately, either I'm just unlucky or I just notice things. When I notice bad behavior or problems or things not working I take the time out to either call or email the CTA help line. I think I've called or written about 12 times in the last 6 months. Guess how many times I've been contacted? Zip, Zero, nada.
I even talked to Ron Huberman directly and give him my card from work and told him I've never been contacted. I'll give him credit that I did get a call back from someone the next business day who was looking up my complaints over the last year and would be addressing them to make sure they had been followed up on and almost a month later I've never got a call back from that person.
It pretty well mirrors the way the CTA worked under Frank and has been continued under Ron...which is "Talk the Talk, but don't Walk to the Walk"
There is no follow through. If there was, there would be alot less administrative employees and maybe a few less of the bus and train drivers and customer service reps who are unhelpful, rude and just don't want to do their job.
If I was in charge, I'd be embarassed that the this site could put up a transit alert system that even the CTA uses and with the combined IT and Administrative resources can seem to put together without years of "research" and putting it out to bid.
Thats is just the tip of the iceberg, but its what I call the "culture of incompetence" and it permeates the very core of the CTA and until there are some wholesale firings and examples made of employees who are rude and don't do their job, it won't even get better.
If things were working, my 20 minute Redline Ride in the morning rush hour would take 20 minutes, rather than 40-60.
Kevin B
Posted by: KevinB | October 23, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Even more interesting and embarrassing is this whole credit card/identity theft issue and its possible connection to a CTA Board Member and Ron Huberman...
See all the dirt at:
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
There's at least three or 4 entries talking about a CTA Board Member Reverend going to the police station and calls to Ron Huberman allegedly telling him that if the Reverend didn't leave, his presence would "officially" be recognized and that Ron called saying he "Didn't want any bad publicity during their money troubles"...
Supposedly the "Reverend" got the thief her job.
KevinB
Posted by: KevinB | October 23, 2007 at 12:06 PM
“If you see something, say something.” Classic!
Posted by: T.Taylor | October 23, 2007 at 12:21 PM
You people are as cynical as you are wrong.
LOL, your anecdotal evidence of being helped promptly is just as good as my anecdotal evidence of being helped not at all, or inefficiently. I know far more people than myself that have had bad response/no response than what you've experienced. Your experience does not negate mine.
Posted by: Anna | October 23, 2007 at 01:53 PM
Wow Michael
What if this person were choking? Bet you wouldn't be so complimentary toward the CTA then huh?
The only defense you have now Michael is to board Car No. 2897 again and test to see if that button is working.
Betcha it isn't!
Posted by: E. | October 23, 2007 at 02:49 PM
Perhaps there is some sort of wierd computer glitch that is causing posts to only be seen by certain people. E. is talking to someone named Michael who supposidely was praising the CTA in this thread. But the only poster named Michael here was critisizing them pretty harshly. And I made a post in another thread where it should have been quite obvious that I was talking to the person directly above yet somebody stated they didn't see who I could have been talking to. Pretty odd.
Posted by: MK | October 23, 2007 at 04:20 PM
Just so you people know, KevinB primarily, the cynical comment was left by "dbt" - not Rusty. Look below a message to see who posted it, not above. Just making sure people are getting crap for nothing...
Posted by: adam | October 23, 2007 at 04:33 PM
err... AREN'T getting crap for nothing... is what I meant.
Posted by: adam | October 23, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Apologies to Rusty. the layout of the posts aways confused me. thanks for the heads up Adam
Posted by: KevinB | October 23, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Damm the call buttons. Get rid of Securitas
people sitting in the booths at the L and
subway stops and put them on the trains to
do their "assist" jobs. Make them earn their
money instead of sitting around looking bored
or important.
Posted by: Mario Mims | October 23, 2007 at 09:27 PM
Just a couple of months ago there was a fight on the Orange line train in the car all the way up front. My wife and I pressed the red button several times and it was ignored. Then I knocked on the motorman's door and 2 stops later the fight was over and still the driver paid no attention to anything....
Posted by: Zaphod | October 24, 2007 at 11:15 AM