The Chicago Transit Agency has begun replacing hundreds of contract security guards with full- and part-time CTA customer-service employees. CTA officials say the move will make stations safer by putting security responsibilities in the hands of workers trained especially to do the CTA work, says the Chicago Sun Times.

The customer-service workers “will have roughly the same amount of training as the private security personnel, but that training will be specific to the CTA,” agency spokesman Brian Steele says.

The new workers will perform the same duties as the private security guards, says the Sun Times, and will be able to do other things, too — like retrieve items dropped on L tracks and help customers who are unfamiliar with ticket machines.