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Busjack

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An article in the RedEye/Tribune (is there a difference?) about CTA attracts more haters on Twitter than other transit agencies: study.

I don't tweet, but the reaction seems similar to other forms of CTA "customer service" communications.

Maybe Jimmy Kimmel can get Brian Steele on to read some of the "Mean Tweets: CTA Edition."

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An article in the RedEye/Tribune (is there a difference?) about CTA attracts more haters on Twitter than other transit agencies: study.

I don't tweet, but the reaction seems similar to other forms of CTA "customer service" communications.

Maybe Jimmy Kimmel can get Brian Steele on to read some of the "Mean Tweets: CTA Edition."

No wonder, because their priorities are all screwed up. Here they are opening a rail station that has a ridership of 10, rebuilding newer stations like 95th, that are already accessible and will not need a big bus terminal in 5-10 years. They are making fixes on the blue line and not adding elevators. Then they claim to not be able to afford it and sink 25 million into Jeff Pk complete with new escalators, new elevators, new bus and rail terminal rebuild, plus they are adding an art deco roofing to the transfer bridge. Then they do nothing for stations like Belmont/Blue that has the sixth highest ridership bus line. Then they don't answer questions why is the NW side stuck with all the old equipment, but I think it's political. Now this latest thing really takes the cake if it's true, they are storing #5000's instead of sending them to the Orange line that needs them too. Mixing the equipment would be good because it would allow the public to not dwell on the old stuff. The old administration had it right. The new guys need to take a training course from them. They have to be losing alot of money.

But they are doing good things too. The Wilson rehab is needed really bad and I believe ridership will climb once that and Clark/Division's done, but also there are more lines than the Red line that need repair. The BRT while it sounds good is progressing as slowly as the 130th extension. The turning of trains has really made some sections of the Blue line really easy to travel.

But yes, I do agree they need some better communication with it's riders because some of there concerns it seems are not heard.

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Reading BusHunter's preceding post, I have 2 reactions:

  • If the mean tweets are about capital priorities, whoever speaks for CTA has manifestly proven that nobody there listens, as most lately typified by the response in this CTA Tattler post (and, of course, my reaction to it), as well as Emanuel's governing style with regard to plenty of matters in addition to CTA.
  • The issue in the article is that most of the anger is about operating conditions, to which there isn't a response.

If one wants to speculate about anything, I doubt that anyone at CTA has read or responded to the CTA Tattler in about 3 years, or follows anything here. It isn't like the old days when the Secretary of the CT Board felt an obligation to comment on Ask Carole (and, at some point before resigning, Carole gave up on Ask Carole, which was supposed to be a forward looking approach to social media interaction).

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Reading BusHunter's preceding post, I have 2 reactions:

  • If the mean tweets are about capital priorities, whoever speaks for CTA has manifestly proven that nobody there listens, as most lately typified by the response in this CTA Tattler post (and, of course, my reaction to it), as well as Emanuel's governing style with regard to plenty of matters in addition to CTA.
  • The issue in the article is that most of the anger is about operating conditions, to which there isn't a response.

If one wants to speculate about anything, I doubt that anyone at CTA has read or responded to the CTA Tattler in about 3 years, or follows anything here. It isn't like the old days when the Secretary of the CT Board felt an obligation to comment on Ask Carole (and, at some point before resigning, Carole gave up on Ask Carole, which was supposed to be a forward looking approach to social media interaction).

Probably the main reason no one comes forward is simply you cannot please everyone. I mean there's people talking on Facebook of the north side being favored still. Someone would always come forward and say they are not happy. But I notice on the fan trips that some the brass is really not all that friendly. You talk to many of them and they give you this blank stare. Some are good people persons like Graham Garfield, who will take up conversations with complete strangers, but some of the others you have to be in their inner circle I guess before they acknowledge your opinion. People sure do act different in the south.

If you think the brass doesn't read this here's an FYI, there are even brass members that are members here but they keep a low profile. I remember a post I made awhile back about the #77 not having service for 50 minutes and having 7 buses in a pack. Do you know the next day they had a meeting at FG on that!! I had an operator complain to me about it, if you can believe that. So they read this. I mean come on it's free advice, why wouldn't you read it?

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...

If you think the brass doesn't read this here's an FYI, there are even brass members that are members here but they keep a low profile. I remember a post I made awhile back about the #77 not having service for 50 minutes and having 7 buses in a pack. Do you know the next day they had a meeting at FG on that!! I had an operator complain to me about it, if you can believe that. So they read this. I mean come on it's free advice, why wouldn't you read it?

Hell, they wouldn't even have the decency to chat on here! :lol::P

At least not in an official capacity.

I wouldn't expect some official to log in here in an official capacity, but there are other ways to do it. My "3 years ago" comment goes back to when Claypool offered to answer questions from the CTA Tattler, but when the first tough one came said time was up and he walked out. Now, the only thing is "CTA Spokesperson... said."

Maybe BusHunter's FG comment reflects Steele's comment in the article that concerns are communicated internally, but not to the customers. But that doesn't seem any different than Customer Service's autotext e-mail reply of "we'll inform the supervisor."

But if it really worked, there would have been a transfer of newer buses to FG this last weekend.

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I wouldn't expect some official to log in here in an official capacity, but there are other ways to do it. My "3 years ago" comment goes back to when Claypool offered to answer questions from the CTA Tattler, but when the first tough one came said time was up and he walked out. Now, the only thing is "CTA Spokesperson... said."

Maybe BusHunter's FG comment reflects Steele's comment in the article that concerns are communicated internally, but not to the customers. But that doesn't seem any different than Customer Service's autotext e-mail reply of "we'll inform the supervisor."

But if it really worked, there would have been a transfer of newer buses to FG this last weekend.

Not if their issues are more important. We don't really know the real reason and not too many people do from what I hear.
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I follow them on Twitter, and they mostly put up service updates and a promotional link here and there. If I look hard enough I can find a response to another tweeter though.

I don't think it's any better when you're on a bus or train line that's acting up. Remember when someone shot at a train at LaSalle on the Blue Line? I was there a few hours after the incident, and got no information on train service after I got squeezed out of a packed train at LaSalle. Just an unintelligible announcement over the speakers once.

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....

If you think the brass doesn't read this here's an FYI, there are even brass members that are members here but they keep a low profile. I remember a post I made awhile back about the #77 not having service for 50 minutes and having 7 buses in a pack. Do you know the next day they had a meeting at FG on that!! I had an operator complain to me about it, if you can believe that. So they read this. I mean come on it's free advice, why wouldn't you read it?

Not if their issues are more important. We don't really know the real reason and not too many people do from what I hear.

What I get from the above:

  • It probably is easier to chew out some operators than actually do something
  • Any feedback was because some driver knew you, not from Customer Service or the like.

As I indicated above, I don't expect FGSuprv110973 to log on here, but there are ways to communicate what's happening, such as telling Tracy Swartz. Apparently both Chase and Steele were willing to talk to her about the 3200s rehab schedule, but nobody is coming out with something comparable like "we realize there are bus equipment problems on the north side, but the reason is ..., and we're temporarily short of equipment, but new buses are being delivered and .... will be assigned there by April."

And if my reasoning is unclear, my point is basically the topic of this thread--that communications are bad, and apparently intentionally so.

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What I get from the above:

  • It probably is easier to chew out some operators than actually do something
  • Any feedback was because some driver knew you, not from Customer Service or the like.

As I indicated above, I don't expect FGSuprv110973 to log on here, but there are ways to communicate what's happening, such as telling Tracy Swartz. Apparently both Chase and Steele were willing to talk to her about the 3200s rehab schedule, but nobody is coming out with something comparable like "we realize there are bus equipment problems on the north side, but the reason is ..., and we're temporarily short of equipment, but new buses are being delivered and .... will be assigned there by April."

And if my reasoning is unclear, my point is basically the topic of this thread--that communications are bad, and apparently intentionally so.

But that was the thing though, this driver did not know I was associated with this site. It surprised me when he mentioned it. But I have also been told by supervision that someone monitors this site. I think his exact words were "someone complained on a social site about no service on a route for 50 minutes. They don't understand our work is hard enough..." The guy was really aggravated. But this operator always seems to do the easier stuff. This was said on a #54A, but I never see this guy on the harder routes like the #152 or #77. Really they should have talked to the operators involved in the delay as it's not everyone's fault. I know some operators are slow, but they can screw up the whole street starting an avalanche of people that's hard to stop especially on belmont.

I think I hit a tender spot that day with someone as they seem to take care of Belmont. I've seen supervisors out of their cars in the street directing traffic to get multiple buses into the turnaround at Kimball and then we had the guy that shows up with a portable farebox at the back door but I haven't seen him lately. I think the mentality is if it affects many riders, it can hurt you. If it don't like your complaining about the #88, your in a minority as it's easy to get overlooked.

I really don't know why FG is getting all the old buses, but it must be important if they are unwilling to change it or they have a stalworth that's high ranking and has convinced them that it's for the better. But it would be interesting to look at garage ridership statistics. I bet Fg comes in last, so that would help support their cause.

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But that was the thing though, this driver did not know I was associated with this site. It surprised me when he mentioned it. But I have also been told by supervision that someone monitors this site. I think his exact words were "someone complained on a social site about no service on a route for 50 minutes. They don't understand our work is hard enough..." ...

I really don't know why FG is getting all the old buses, but it must be important if they are unwilling to change it or they have a stalworth that's high ranking and has convinced them that it's for the better. But it would be interesting to look at garage ridership statistics. I bet Fg comes in last, so that would help support their cause.

I think you just confirmed my two points.

Regardless of whether the driver knew you or not or that you comment here (I don't know how the conversation got started) that was the only feedback.

I don't expect you to know why the equipment allocation is as it is, but if "They don't understand our work is hard enough" with regard to the 50 minute gap* they figure we don't understand about the bus allocation either, especially since they won't explain it.

_________

*Which, if anyone had been reading this site, they would have figured out that we expected supervision to use BusTracker to straighten it out before you commented on it. But that's an aside.

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Any kind of negative feedback that reaches the masses is a concern. Like when something happens, like in the Congress derailment from my Youtube site, that night the control center did come on and say the media is coming and talking to people like that was a red alert thing. And if you watch the video, you can see how that snowballs if they don't get to a disgruntled passenger in time. Bottom line is even the brass has bosses and has to answer the hard questions and someone has to pay the fiddler if things go awry.

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... and someone has to pay the fiddler if things go awry.

While Kruesi had to go, no indication that there is any pressure on Claypool or Steele. Of course, Claypool has been reported as making sure that people at the bottom of the totem pole pay with their jobs.

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I was noticing yesterday an advertisement for a coffee shop in logan square on #1045, now a 74th bus. And for a school on 109th st. on #1839. I bet they would be happy to know they are now advertising across town. I don't know how many would be interested in something on the other side of town. Another casualty I guess of the bus swap.

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