CTA Personnel on Downtown Diversions: "We Have No Idea"
The CTA's current 'L' and subway renovation projects are causing travel havoc in the Loop. It would help if the CTA's own customer service attendants knew enough to help detoured travelers navigate all the changes. But not all of them do.
No sooner do I complain about the CTA's vert short-sighted decision to shunt all almost all Loop bound 'L' service to a single pair of tracks for most evenings and weekends throughout 2008 when already I encounter alleged CTA customer service attendants who have no clue how to help people navigate the changes.
I just got back from a late dinner in the Loop with a neighbor. Walking by the now-closed CTA State/Lake 'L' station, we overheard a confused rider asking two transit workers who were positioned at the bottom of the stairs with maps how to get to the Pink Line to get home. I felt certain he wasn't the only person who would be asking about how to get home: the Dolly Parton concert at the Chicago Theater and Wicked at the Oriental had just gotten out, too, and many people were milling about.
The CTA folks were unable to tell him anything except he had to make his way to Ashland/Lake where Pink Line service is turning back all weekend. How exactly he was supposed to travel the two miles between State and Ashland with no 'L' service in the east Loop?
They told him they had no idea.
I stepped in and told the distressed rider he had to make his way on a local bus to Washington/Wells to take a Green Line train to Ashland to transfer to the Pink Line.
The CTA workers thanked me for doing their job.
I hope someone from the CTA reads this. I really do. Pathetic job, folks. Totally and completely pathetic.
