CTA Tattler

I'm glad Daley's finally seeing a problem, but he's still wrong if he doesn't see the CTA's lack of communication with riders as the biggest problem. If the operators were providing consistent and reliable information to the riders, the riders might not have left the trains. If riders don't leave the trains, emergency personnel arguably aren't needed.

What the CTA needs is a set of documents that detail their response to all these situations. They then need to communicate those documents vigorously to the operators, the public, and the media. And when these situations occur, they need to get information out, to all of the above, about how they're executing their responses.

I'm glad the steps are being taken, and I hope the CTA updates those unhelpful emergency cards on the trains that were cleverly mocked last year ( http://www.ctatattler.com/2007/09/pacman-like-gra.html ). But nothing matters if the CTA doesn't execute.

Understatment of this young century:

“The CTA has been working hard to win back our customers’ confidence in the organization and we realize that we must continue to improve and perform significantly better in events such as the Blue Line evacuation to win our customers’ confidence,” said CTA President Ron Huberman.

Really? You mean you guys just figured out it's not a good idea to spin and minimize your lack of preparedness for emergencies and total lack of consistent communication during an emergency? Golly, I feel much safer now.

exactly so, Bob, exactly so.

Mark Suppelsa on the radio this morning made some comment about this (he does news reports for WTMX right now), and said that Daley, for all intents & purposes, runs the CTA. I wish I had a transcript so I could give you the exact quote; it was before 7:30. He also suggested that heads will roll (into which I read, because they embarassed Daley.)

Sounds like the honeymoon is over for Ron. Now maybe we can get past the adoration and the "he hasn't been there that long" excuses and get some much needed work done.

He should have had these procedures in place within a couple months after the blue line incident, no excuses.

Each operator should have a "bible" that they refer to in the cab of every train, bus and vehicle that the CTA operates detailing procedures for handling situations like these. I know that you can't prepare for everything, but at the same time, some of the things like keeping riders informed (and not in the general, we'll be moving soon way) is essential to keeping control of a situation.

Somehow I think the mood at the next "coffee" (if it happens), just won't be the same as the last one.

KevinB

It's been sounding like Daley's decided to cut Huberman loose of late. Is he ready to throw him overboard to make himself look better? I sure as hell hope not. Huberman's made mistakes, but is still more aware and activist than any other CTA boss in my memory.

Maybe it's just a warning that he's not going to get another free pass like Frank did.

I think that the Olympic bid is the true cause here. Ron was brought in to fix problems so that they would not affect Emperor Daleys bid for the gold....

It goes along with my theory that if Chicago loses the bid, Daley will lose interest in fixing the CTA and Ron will be off somewhere more high profile.

Mostly it's all about ego and legacy for Daley, he could care less about our problems on the CTA.

KevinB

RonH looked mighty chagrined during yesterday's press conference. I wonder how long His Mayoral Majesty yelled at him, at what volume level and how much spit flew out of his contorted mouth. Da Mayor seemed to have popped out a new vein in his head. Hopefully, he'll give his Boy Wonder one more chance and, more hopefully, RonH will learn from the mistake this time. No more going off the rails on a Kruesi train!

Whoa! Now it's my turn to read KevinB's comments and think, "Wait a minute... I *agree* with that"! Who'll be next?

(Although I'm not sure about keeping the bible KevinB mentions in the cab of each train... theoretically, sure, but I'd rather have an operator calling someone who can put a plan into action than flipping through a book wondering "this has to be in this damn thing somewhere." A quick-reference cheat sheet may end up being more practical.)

And while I'm very much a Ron H cynic, I'm not hoping he fails; when he fails, as we're seeing, CTA riders' lives suck (that much more). I look forward to the day he (or any Daley flack) proves me wrong.

More agreeing.

***Can't handle this, must disagree.***

Maybe not a bible (too many words, not enough pictures), but a nice thick laminated cliff notes , this is what you do if the train derails guide, kinda like those kids books with the thick cardboard pages.

Something along the "Dummies Guides".

I can just see it now, "The Dummies Guide to Train Derailments"....although to get around the copyright thing, you might have to call it the "Morons Guide...". :)

KevinB

The Dummies Guide would start out with a chapter or page about Passengers: This is a Passenger. There are actually a lot of them aboard your Train, sitting or standing in the Cars! Did you know that Passengers are people too? If you lock a bunch of them up for two hours in the dark without telling them what's going on, they could get hot, tired, bored, scared, thirsty, have to use the bathroom, or all the above. And someone may be wondering why they didn't show up for where they are supposed to be! Tip: But if you do tell them something, it's not a good idea to tell them Lies!

No, no book, no laminated card. Drum that sh*t into their heads. It should be second nature. Even if a laminated card is less cumbersome than a booklet, I don't want some guy scanning down the page with his finger to find the proper scenario. No, make them know the info like they know their own name. Test them every six months. If they fail, they're suspended for a month, no pay. We've been pretty lucky so far. Why wait until someone dies before they get serious about knowing what to do in an emergency?

I'd like to know how all the emergency planning the city has undertaken has paid off. It appeared that CTA didn't even have a plan about how to move a disabled train off the tracks. "Try" to push it? What would happen in a real emergency? They should have a plan in place to "remove train" not "try to remove train." This inspires little confidence that all the talking, planning,and tabletop exercises have done much to prepare us.