RedEye article on 74th operations

[jajuan]

If you all don't know about it already, the RedEye did a feature today on operations at the 74th street garage, home of the 8 Halsted "Most Rotten Route' in a recent RedEye survey. It basically gave the general manager's take on how doomsday changed operators views on developments to improve service such as GPS bus tracking and how it's not to spy on them but about safety and accountability. "It's about staying in business." That quote is her own words.

It also talked about she posted performance among the operators right on the wall so that they could see how they performed compared to each other as they went out to their buses. The really interesting part was when the article spoke of the bus bunching problem, particularly on the 8 Halsted, and what the garage was working on to help alleviate the problem. She mentioned a current solution of assigning all-day shifts to cut down on the time of operators switching from bus to bus and enhancing continuity. I'm paraphrasing her words here.

What struck me is how they focused on the 8 Halsted in particular when, with the spring picks going into effect Sunday, this will be the last week that the 8 will be assigned to 74th and Kedzie being its new home next week. I know the garage manager couldn't come out and say that 'We'll no longer be operating this route next week because it's been reassigned' because of the company rules about divulging that information of course. But I just found the timing of the article interesting given in fact that the 8 was the focus of the bus bunching issue in regards to 74th garage but 74th will be losing it to Kedzie next week.

One thing it did bring to mind is how Kedzie will handle that issue with this route next week once it is officially assigned there for all its operations. That particular issue will interesting to watch unfold during the weeks to come after the spring picks are effective Sunday.

[Busjack]

Before finding the RedEye article referenced, I did find this in the Blog

Not to worry folks. As of March 30th, the 8 Halsted bus will operate out of the Kedzie garage, and the 29 State will operate out of 103rd garage. Then we will discover the problems are citywide, and not just at 1 garage.

"GOING PUBLIC" SAYS: I'd be surprised if anyone is "discovering" the problems are citywide. Of course, it's not one garage and I hope it didn't appear that way. This just happened to be the garage I went to. Bus bunching is a public transit pandemic. As for the route changes, I sent a note to the CTA around 11:30 a.m. to see if that's for sure. I'll update when I make 100% sure. Thanks for writing!

Posted by: Arthur | Mar 19, 2008 9:48:55 PM

Apparently we have better sources than the Trib. And why does the CTA have PR persons just to feed stories to this "reporter?"

[jajuan]

Before finding the RedEye article referenced, I did find this in the Blog

Apparently we have better sources than the Trib. And why does the CTA have PR persons just to feed stories to this "reporter?"

Apparently some of our members do have better sources considering the route reassignments except the poster of that particular blog is off by a week. The reporter does have a point when she says bus bunching is a systemic problem not isolated to only one garage. That wasn't really the issue. It was just ironic in a way to see 8 Halsted used as an example of the bus bunching problem and 74th's solutions to help alleviate the problem the week before that route is set to change homes. One thing's for sure, it'll be an interesting week for 74th to get flooded with calls about the 8 being late, and they have to inform people that the 8 is reassigned to Kedzie. Those first few weeks after the start of the spring picks will also be an interesting game of phone tag when it comes to reporting late buses on the 8 and other routes.

[Busjack]

One thing's for sure, it'll be an interesting week for 74th to get flooded with calls about the 8 being late, and they have to inform people that the 8 is reassigned to Kedzie.

The question is, do patrons have a direct line number to the garage? In the old days, you could ask the CTA operator at MOhawk 4-7200 to connect you with the manager of transportation at a particular garage (I did it once with Limits, when a 136 driver short turned before my stop). However, my impression is that the only contact now is with Customer Service, and the folks there give you canned answers. Or are you implying that Customer Service won't know where to direct the calls? (Or maybe you just picked up on what the RedEye reporter said.)

[nextstopchicago]

The question is, do patrons have a direct line number to the garage? In the old days, you could ask the CTA operator at MOhawk 4-7200 to connect you with the manager of transportation at a particular garage (I did it once with Limits, when a 136 driver short turned before my stop). However, my impression is that the only contact now is with Customer Service, and the folks there give you canned answers. Or are you implying that Customer Service won't know where to direct the calls? (Or maybe you just picked up on what the RedEye reporter said.)

I've been transferred to the garage phone within the last 3 years, and I actually feel like I got the number (they may not have even been able to transfer me, in fact.) I didn't keep it or anything, and I'd be somewhat surprised if there were many customers willing to push it as far as I did. I rarely hear of anyone even calling customer service, though it may be different in other neighborhoods.

I also want to ask about the idea of calling in "to report" a late bus. While that may have been useful once, the garage should now already know about late buses through the tracker. I still think it's useful to call and let people know that service lapses are irritating. But hopefully they'll already know.

Along those lines, I want to ask something again -- I haven't had truly late bus in ages. I don't take buses every day, but I take them a lot. It used to be that I'd have a truly late (like 25-30 minute wait) often enough that I'd get pretty frustrated about it. Lately, I just don't experience that. I tend to ride buses more between October and April, and I know I haven't experienced that kind of wait since October.

Has anyone else noticed that really bad waits are diminishing, or have I just gotten lucky?

[jajuan]

The question is, do patrons have a direct line number to the garage? In the old days, you could ask the CTA operator at MOhawk 4-7200 to connect you with the manager of transportation at a particular garage (I did it once with Limits, when a 136 driver short turned before my stop). However, my impression is that the only contact now is with Customer Service, and the folks there give you canned answers. Or are you implying that Customer Service won't know where to direct the calls? (Or maybe you just picked up on what the RedEye reporter said.)

The CTA used to print brochures with the garages phone numbers before instituting the toll free number used today. Today contact is with Customer Service initially, but when it comes to late buses they are willing to give you the direct phone number to that garage in question if you want to speak with someone directly instead of Customer Service. It's how I managed to get Kedzie's direct line. So no I'm not implying that Customer Service doesn't know where to direct calls. In my experience, they've been helpful with giving phone numbers for the garages. They also give you the phone number to the garage for lost and found purposes. So it's still farely easy to get in contact with the garage you need. Plus with the new push by CTA management to improve service, I'd be surprised if the Customer Service Center gave people the run around in getting in touch with a driver's garage to complain about a late bus.

[jajuan]

I've been transferred to the garage phone within the last 3 years, and I actually feel like I got the number (they may not have even been able to transfer me, in fact.) I didn't keep it or anything, and I'd be somewhat surprised if there were many customers willing to push it as far as I did. I rarely hear of anyone even calling customer service, though it may be different in other neighborhoods.

I also want to ask about the idea of calling in "to report" a late bus. While that may have been useful once, the garage should now already know about late buses through the tracker. I still think it's useful to call and let people know that service lapses are irritating. But hopefully they'll already know.

Along those lines, I want to ask something again -- I haven't had truly late bus in ages. I don't take buses every day, but I take them a lot. It used to be that I'd have a truly late (like 25-30 minute wait) often enough that I'd get pretty frustrated about it. Lately, I just don't experience that. I tend to ride buses more between October and April, and I know I haven't experienced that kind of wait since October.

Has anyone else noticed that really bad waits are diminishing, or have I just gotten lucky?

Actually, I've only had rare occasions of experiencing a late bus myself. However, that's mostly because a lot of the time my work schedule has me commuting during nonrush times of service. During the times when I do ride the bus during rush hour, it actually does come on time most of the time. When it has been late, it was because of something that may have affected traffic flow.

[qwantae]

I just cannot stand 74th operators, they are the worst with bad attitudes, they come when they want to come on schedule, even They missed passengers at a bus stop just like they did to me on 67th/ Eastend, I had to comfront them and they did not apologize to me.

Plus, I wouldn't be happy to see them on #52A/ 53A Routes after the Spring Moves.