Apr 21, 2008 6:35 pm US/Central
Daley Criticizes CTA Over Communication Problems
Officials Want To Cut Down On Time It Takes To Notify City Officials Of Service Interruptions
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The Blue Line subway was evacuated following a mishap last Tuesday, where first a train got stuck due to mechanical problems, then passengers from another train decided to self-evacuate.
Sukjun Lim
CTA leaders are changing their tune about the response to the Blue Line emergency and evacuation last Tuesday, and the mayor is demanding answers.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed fire Commissioner Ray Orozco to find out what went wrong on the Blue Line last Tuesday.
The mayor was clearly displeased Monday when he sharply criticized the CTA, and blamed that agency for a failure to communicate.
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Daley blamed communications breakdowns for the worst effects of last week's mishap, noting that the CTA didn't notify the Office of Emergency Communications about the situation until an hour after the train stalled.
"This was an hour. Not 10 or 15 minutes. An hour. And that's the problem," Daley said. "That's unacceptable right there."
The problem began at 8:10 a.m. when a southbound Blue Line train stalled and couldn't be restarted. Efforts to push the train into the station failed when an air conditioning cover fell off, hit the third rail and caused a jolt which led frightened passengers to evacuate. Those passengers said they never got instructions from the CTA.
"They just need to have a better line of communications between the train operators and the passengers because we don't know unless they tell us," said Blue Line passenger Chenaevion Terry.
But train operators couldn't get updates to pass on to passengers because of overburdened radio systems. That's why the CTA is now buying cell phones for all motormen.
CTA President Ron Huberman said, "We are purchasing cell phones that will be assigned to every Red and Blue Line operator. Operators will be trained on both use of the phones and the text messaging capabilities. They will be required to carry them as an additional communications tool."
Still, some riders wonder if that's enough.
"They could have more employees on board; there's just one guy," said passenger Brendan Gleeson.
And the transit union agrees.
"It gives you another set of eyes, ears and also somebody to communicate with passengers," said President Rick Harris of Transit Workers Local 308.
The CTA is also providing additional training on communication during an emergency because some of the passengers said that they were called names when they got off the trains on their own.
The policy changes and other changes are expected to be set by December.
Meantime, late Sunday night, another CTA train derailed, forcing passengers to evacuate. The good news is that the incident happened late Sunday night, so rush hour service wasn't affected and service on the Red Line is back up and running.
A southbound red line train jumped the tracks just after it pulled away from the Howard Station around 11 p.m. Sunday. The CTA shut down power to all the tracks at the station so that passengers could evacuate safely.
Passenger Leah Grimes said, "We had to get off the train and walk through the tracks to get to the station, basically."
There was a domino effect; Purple Line and Yellow Line trains were also affected.
There's no word yet on what caused the derailment.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley and Joanie Lum contributed to this report.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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