[PRCo] Re: Cleveland Subway Tours

[Herb Brannon]

The "spell-checker" actually missed one. Heavens !! Last sentence of the
middle reply should read, "Even more INTERESTING is that
within............yada yada yada


On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net> wrote:

>
>
>  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*
>



-- 
Herb Brannon
On America's North Coast