CTA cuts conductors
Dharm Guruswamy
Today's (Weds.) edition of the Chicago Tribune has a story on CTA
eliminating conductors on the Green Line. Any reaction from the windy
city on this? I guess conductors will soon be nothing but history in
North America...
--
Dharm Guruswamy - 3rd year grad. student, City Planning & Civil Engineering
snail mail: 960 Atlantic Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
phone/fax: HOME (404) 685-3294 WORK (404) 894-6402
internet:dh...@trec.ce.gatech.edu | www:http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~dg63
Adam H. Kerman
In article <5os4p9$l...@catapult.gatech.edu>,
Dharm Guruswamy <dg...@acmex.gatech.edu> wrote:
>Today's (Weds.) edition of the Chicago Tribune has a story on CTA
>eliminating conductors on the Green Line. Any reaction from the windy
>city on this? I guess conductors will soon be nothing but history in
>North America...
Conductors were eliminated on the Purple (Evanston), Green (Lake-Englewood-
Jackson Park) lines on Sunday, 6/22. Earlier, conductors had been eliminated
on Brown (Ravenswood). Orange (Midway) and Yellow (Skokie) never had them.
This leaves Red (Howard-Dan Ryan) and Blue (O'Hare-Congress-Douglass) with
conductors.
Only the MK cars have full-across cabs. These are exclusively on the Yellow,
Brown, and Orange lines. So, how did Chicago go one-man with 2-man trains?
The railfan seat was removed, replaced with a foot ledge. A white line was
painted on the floor next to the motorman's cab. A sticker was placed on the
outside of the motorman's cab reading, "Don't stand in front of the white
line while cab is in use." A piece of nylon is looped through the seat
stantion so that the front 2-seat bench may not be used. A door control with a
single lever was placed next to the window, which can now be opened with a
key. Another door control within the motorman's cab. The trainphone was
given an extra-long cord. A hook was added to the inside of the cab door in
which to hang the train phone while at the left-hand door control.
To open the doors at a center platform, the motorman announces the stop, pulls
into the station, picks up the train phone, announces the stop again, hangs it
on the hook, steps on the ledge, puts the key in the lock to open the window,
opens the doors, picks up the train phone, announces that the doors will close,
steps back on the ledge and looks out and closes the doors, takes out the key
from the door control, steps back in the cab, and starts up again.
Properly, he should remove the reverser key as he's leaving the cab. When he
reinserts it, the train is automatically thrown into emergency as a test.
He also has the option of keeping the cab door closed between stops.
Need I mention that this adds a lot of time?
To speed things up, one motorman regularly leaves the cab before the train
comes to a complete stop.
Today on the Evanston, a motorman was unable to get a clear light indicating
that all the doors had closed. He checked each vestibule, but couldn't find
the door causing trouble. He radioed Control. "Permission to go on bypass?"
"What's your head car number?" "2810" "What's your badge number?" "35109"
"Have your conductor inspect each of the doors."
The motorman puts down the radio and says, loudly, "I don't have a conductor!"
By the way, Evanston used to have one-man cars!
Adam H. Kerman
In article <5ov4d8$g...@netaxs.com>, Lee Winson <lwi...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>Which route is the Green Line?
Lake-South Main-Englewood-Jackson Park
>How does it fit with one-man operation, in terms of station layout,
>patronage, boarding, etc.?
2-man cars with right-hand cabs were minimally converted to 1-man. It takes
longer at stations with the platform on the left. It won't affect station
design, which is influenced by structure and width of right-of-way. Boardings
on this line are pathetic, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Temporarily, there are collectors on board when station agents are not on duty.
They are able to collect more fares than conductors as they don't deal with
the doors. They will vanish by fall when station agents are replaced with
customer assistance agents (on 2 shifts) and security guards (overnight). All
fares will then be collected by new automated equipment.
The Purple Line (Evanston) also went 1-man last Sunday.
Lee Winson
Which route is the Green Line?
How does it fit with one-man operation, in terms of station layout,
patronage, boarding, etc.?