Though we suspected it, we've now confirmed it: The CTA is requiring its motormen to issue an additional manual announcement before closing the train doors.
Since Dec. 31, all rail operators have been instructed to make the following announcement over the public address system, said a CTA spokesperson:
"Attention customers: Please do not attempt to board, the doors are closing."
The spokesperson also said: "The additional procedure maintains and reinforces that all CTA rail operators are required to visually confirm all customers are clear of the doors and that all doors are closed before proceeding and increases awareness for riders that they should stay clear of the doors as they close."
But not all operators are making the additional announcement, or they are making it selectively, at just some stations.
Also, passengers certainly are not cooperating. On Sunday morning, I saw a young couple -- the guy pushing a stroller, the woman holding a baby -- shove the stroller into a closing door so they could board the train. Shades of "stroller mom," only this time the baby was safe in the arms of his ignorant parents.
Their stupidity delayed the train from almost 10 minutes as the operator checked every single train car before proceeding out of Thorndale. Nice.
UPDATE: On thins morning's rail commute, the operator did not make this extra announcement. However, he did blurt out at Thorndale: "Hey, you didn't have to fall down to catch this train. I would have waited for you. Are you OK?"
Filed under: Breaches of etiquete, CTA in the news, CTA safety
Tags: announcements, CTA, doors closing, stroller accident
I haven't heard this announcement on the Brown Line at all.
I haven't heard this announcement on the Brown Line at all.
It's not bad if you're going a stop or two but if your ride is over 20 minutes, it gets tired real fast.
I've heard this a lot in the past two weeks, so I was wondering if it's some sort of edict. Most recently, the messages from most operators have degraded to and nobody can hope to understand what they're saying.
A nice addition to the already annoying "Doors Closing" messages. Particularly since many operators play that as soon as the doors open, before anyone has had a chance to exit (and certainly none of the waiting people have had a chance to board yet).
I'm most amused by the additional "doors are closing" announcements that occur AFTER the doors have closed. I've noticed that on the Red Line.
A ten minute delay to check the doors on an eight-car train? As always, complete disregard for the passengers.
I started noticing this last week on the Blue Line, and it seems more and more operators are complying with the edict since I'm hearing it almost all the time now. It's annoying! I can tune out the recorded "Ding dong, doors closing!" since I hear it all the time and it's always the same, but when I hear a real person talk I automatically listen in case he or she is saying something important. Eventually I'll start to tune out the manual announcements and probably end up ignoring something important like "This train will run express to..."
Thanks a lot, CTA!
Let's inconvenience most everyone for the stupid among us. A couple bad apples... And as MK said, whoever came up with this didn't think out the ramifications of this. I figure this will stop soon as soon as people's memory of the stroller incident fades. This is not a practical solution.
Expecting there to not be stupid people on the CTA is asking too much. This society has to dumb it down for everyone. The trains run pretty regularly (for now) what is the point of shoving a stroller into a closing door when you could wait 7 to 10 minutes and board safely with your child?
I finally heard it this morning. She'd make the announcement that the doors were closing, then open the doors. Seriously.
I noticed this for the first time today. Very annoying. Another reason to ride Metra.
I noticed it and wondered what was up. It's reallllly stupid. They say it as soon as the doors open while people are still getting off the train in most cases.
Dear CTA: don't make useless rules that annoy your employees and customers.
The upside to this new policy is that at least twice a day I get to hear the conductor rebuke someone over the loudspeaker for being stupid and entering the train after the warning. I always wanted to have a loudspeaker of my own to yell at people holding up my bus/train - now the CTA does it for me.
The funny thing is this announcement is for the people who aren't on or near the train