Looks like CTA President Ron Huberman might be reading Chicagoist. Yesterday he admitted that he made a mistake by dismissing the "L" track shutdown last week as an "inconvenience in the Loop." Said Huberman,
"We didn't communicate effectively or give people the reassurances they needed. It was scary. Passenger needs took a back seat. I apologize to our riders."
Huberman also introduced measures aimed at ensuring that incidents like last week's are the exception, not the rule. Those measures include sending out extra CTA personnel to provide information on delays and evacuate passengers from stranded trains and buses, if necessary.
Before we get accused of riding Huberman's jock, we should point out that it's that sort of acquiescence that already puts him light years ahead of his predecessor Frank Kruesi. If they want to keep riders abreast, maybe they should help promote the text message CTA Alerts started up by Daniel X. O'Neil, whose brother Kevin runs CTA Tattler. When you have riders beating you to innovations you should be doing, you realize you have a lot of work to do.
By the way, apology accepted.
Image courtesy of www.cartoonsoup.com.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Why on earth does the CTA need extra personnel to communicate with passengers????
There are already employees on every train and at every train station!! If you ask them why there is a delay, they say, "we haven't heard anything." CTA staff in operations should CALL every train station and tell the employees to make announcements on the PA system telling waiting passengers about the delays.
In order to accomplish this, CTA would just need to make a change in policy and require employees at train stations to actually do something.
wow. u guys are ruthless when it comes 2 ron. i'm surprised he hasn't quit under all the pressure from chicagoist.
even when he screws up (b/c he is responsible when his people screw up) u guys treat him w/kid gloves.
I amd glad Huberman apologized. The people on the trains and the people waiting for the trains deserve the apology.
Every morning I transfer to another train line, and every morning the same CTA employee is standing on the platform, flirting with the ladies or leaning against the wall. I caught him sleeping on the bench one morning last week. Now, perhaps he is working the other 7.25 hours that I don't see him. Maybe not. In my expereince and observation, it seems like most platform employees are doing very little. They do not know what stations are closed, they cannot give directions, and they do not seem to help passengers.
I think that the employees on the platform could be used more effectively.
Guest #2: While I disagree with your opinion that we're treating Huberman with "kid gloves," I would note that he's tasked with cleaning up Kruesi's mess, foremost. Even though he's Daley's former chief of staff and has an idea of how the mess at CTA came about, the wise course of action would be to give him some time frame for making headway toward solving the problems at CTA before criticizing him indiscriminately, as you (or "u") wish us to (or "2").
I hope I used those right. I never came around to learning the modern hieroglyphics.
Dear guset # 1:
This may come as a shock to you, but the only CTA employee on the train is the motorman in most instances. The majority of the people in uniforms in the stations are *not* CTA employees either. Quite a few of them are day laborers hired by companies other than the CTA, which uses those people in place of actual, trained CTA employees. That guy Sparky caught napping probably works for the rent-a-body company and is making $7/hour.
guest #5.. who are the actual CTA employees then? those guys in the fluorescent vests sure fooled me.
Give Huberman some time to prove himself. One shitty comment does not a bad guy make. After all, he has managed to give the CTA unionized workforce a long-needed kick in the pants. That should count for something.
But: Don't let Daley off the hook (he is the main local master of the CTA, and has been for years and years) nor the state governors and lawmakers who ignored mass transit for so long.
Whew. I almost thought the day would go by without a Chicagoist post on the CTA! thanks C-ist!
Thanks for the clarification #5. So, let me get this straight: the CTA contracts out a business, which in turn, hires people to stand on the platform. These people are not trained by the CTA? Can someone explain what they are doing there, then? That may explain why some do not know directions, what stations are closed, etc.
the july 3rd screw up and the screw up involved in ur article r not indiscriminate.
ur letting ur hatred 4 kruesi color how u view ron's performance at the head of the cta.
Apology accepted.
A minor incovenience is a small price to pay for the clean, efficient, fast service I enjoy on the CTA every day. It is by far the best in the nation, and easily surpasses far newer systems througout Asia. Employees are always friendly, and when I dropped a burger on the train the floor was so clean I had no problem picking it back up and eating it.
Sure, we could give Huberman more time to see if his surge works--say, September, maybe--or we could act like we do when Petreus takes an Iraqi podium and say same shit, different face.
The CTA has had years of failures and given us years of excuses. I'll give Huberman a shot when he stops talking and starts acting. When I see an improvement, then I'll pat the guy on the back.
Best in the nation???????? HAHAHA
I am from Houston, and mass transit is definitely not utilized in the same way. However, METRO is well funded by a 1 cent sales tax in its service area, drives CLEAN modern buses that have no advertisements, had additional funding for buidling and maintaining roads that city buses use, and they do this with efficient management, good service, and CLEAN buses.
CTA operations are a joke. I use them everyday, but their lack of funding, lack of cleanliness, lack of organization, and lack of properly utilizing employees and modern technology is rediculous.