The "vulgar" voice of Metra

I dunno what to think, its kinda funny but maybe not so much...

Union Pacific West Line crew member accused of profanity

By Virginia Groark
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 28, 2006, 7:30 PM CDT

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/cust ... i-news-hed

Metra commuter Robert Larson has heard crews inadvertently use a train's public-address system to communicate with each other, but until this week he had never known them to use curse words to describe passengers.

On Thursday, minutes before the 4:35 p.m. scheduled outbound departure of a Union Pacific West Line train, a crew member told workers over the public-address system that a train car door was open. Then he used a vulgar phrase that includes the word "mother" to refer to passengers, several riders said.

"It's one thing to be on the intercom and use a cuss word; that's not that big of a deal," Larson, of Oak Park, said Friday. "But to refer to his passengers as that, I think it's kind of uncalled for."

Union Pacific, which is investigating the incident, apologizes to riders, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for the railroad, whose employees run Metra trains on that route.

Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said the vulgar language "is completely unacceptable," and that the commuter railroad has asked Union Pacific to investigate.

The burst of colorful language apparently is the second time this year that a Union Pacific employee has used a vulgar term over the public-address system.

A bad day could've led to a slip of the tongue, but if he uses that phrase just to refer to ordinary passengers, I don't think I'd want to hear the word he'd use to describe railfans...

Last year, I remember a senior conductor on a BNSF train come on the PA system before a departure and scolded another conductor (possibly a new guy) about using the wrong car to load a wheelchair-bound passenger, although a car with a wheelchair lift was used. No colorful language was used, but it was odd for another conductor to be yelled at over the PA system when he could have been taken aside.

There was one train that I regularly rode on the SouthShore that the conductor and one collector always bid for the same job; It was always fun to listen to them rib each other and bust each other's chops over the PA system for all to hear... course that was several years ago and I doubt they would get away with such an activity these days.

JL, that's why I love the shore - everything about it reeks of such personality and flavor - although most railroaders are more interesting than a more normal "desk jockey" occupation, the CSS and NICTD guys/gals are a cut above. My hat off to them for making the trip always worthwhile.