[PRCo] Re: Cleveland Subway Tours

[Herb Brannon]

On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 5:47 PM, Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
> In other words, you wrote some nice pieces for us before ... I'll
> remember, "He should have taken the $50.".... so I'm asking you to
> tell us what it's like to run a subway train in Cleveland.
>
> Now, let's fast forward to about 2006.   I went in to the library to
> read old newspapers to ferret out more of the local trolley
> history.   A friend dropped me off and I came home on my Medicare
> card.   I think there were five people on the bus.   Two were talking
> about their experiences in prison.  I think I remember one old lady
> riding free.   There was some other character that I would not have
> wanted by daughter bring home to dinner.   And the lady driving the
> bus seemed to have an I. Q. about ten points lower than most of those
> that Conestoga Transportation used to employ back in the 1950s ...
> not surprising because the chief dispatcher told me he was just lucky
> if he could get warm bodies to drive his buses.



If you want to be a bus or rail operator for Greater Cleveland Regional
Transit Authority you have to have a decent education. The current
requirement is for at least one year of formal education (which is
verifiable and for which a certificate was issued) ABOVE the high school
level. This can be a military school (US Armed Forces type), trade school,
business school, regular university, etc. The job has become a very
technical one. If you recall the photos I posted a year or so ago of the
operators area of a RTA bus you can see by the computerized equipment that
"it's not your fathers GM bus", any longer. Noteworthy is the fact that to
be a rail operator at GCRTA you have to be a bus operator first. Bus
operator training is 10 weeks. On top of the bus training you must
complete the 12 week rail training and pass the final certification test.
You receive a certificate issued jointly by GCRTA and the State of
Ohio. Rail operators also start part-time then advance into full time. I
should think that most large cities follow this same procedure. I suppose
smaller cities/towns could lower the standards and get away with it do to
smaller passenger loads and less computerized on-board systems. I know that
sometimes, during periods of heavy ridership, I look back through two
80-foot heavy rail cars at between two and three hundred seated and
standing passengers and realize that so much depends on my actions. These
days it requires complete mental attention to every detail of the operations
to insure a safe trip. The passengers also must now be "civil" in their
actions, language, etc., or they are removed immediately by transit
police. Police are assigned to every station on the Red Line. When the train
pulls in they walk along the platform looking through the windows at the
passengers. Just last Thursday I came into Superior Station and the police
walked the train. They signaled me to hold the train. They boarded and
instantly removed a man who had an open bottle of liquor. I had not noticed
him.......they did. He was arrested. GCRTA is not playing the "oh, that's
o.k." game any longer. The stakes are too high to let everyone assert their
perceived rights. If you want to use the Cleveland public transit system you
will pay the proper fare and you will act civilized.

>
>
> Are my observations about the users and the operators in anyway
> universal Herb?  Is this just a small city phenomena or is it
> something that even happens today in places like Cleveland?   How
> does it affect the operator who has to deal with the public?
>
As with any large metro area, anywhere on this planet, the passengers are a
living illustration of the general society. Gone are the days (and
thankfully so) when everyone "dressed up" in their Sunday best when
venturing out in public. I see everything from the intoxicated, foul
smelling drug/alcohol addicted street dweller all the way to the executive
type dressed in a complete tailor made outfit (handmade shirt included) with
a $750.00 pair of shoes on his feet and certainly everything (and I do mean
EVERY thing) in between riding in my car or train. Interesting is the fact
that while the top and the bottom layers have their good and bad points,
those "in between" layers hold all the excitement, energy, and interest.
Even more inresting is that within the policy-controlled atmosphere of a
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority bus, car, or train, all these
social layers, for the most part, coexist peacefully.

>
>
>
> I understand Herb that the questions I'm asking are are not typical
> railfan questions but then for 30 or 40 years I haven't approached
> this hobby the same way most people do.


Nor have I. I have lived my hobby in real time, in the real world, not just
copied it in small scale.

>
>
> Herb Brannon
> On America's North Coast
>

  The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to
reach out eagerly and without fear. for newer and richer experience.
  *Eleanor
Roosevelt*