The CTA may still have miles to go on the road to providing reliable, world-class service, but at least customers will now know what they are getting into before leaving home or work.

The Chicago Transit Authority on Tuesday introduced reforms, including e-mail alerts, to keep passengers better informed about routine service changes and, eventually, disruptions caused by equipment breakdowns and emergencies.

Riders can sign up at www.transitchicago.com to receive planned service-change notifications because of construction, special events and other situations. They also can view a new video on train emergency-evacuation procedures on the Web site.

The video and a new brochure explaining what rail passengers should do in an emergency are an attempt to end a string of recent incidents in which panicked passengers fled stranded subway trains on their own because no CTA personnel provided instructions.

Beginning early next year, CTA customers can subscribe to emergency alerts sent as text messages to mobile phones or as e-mails to BlackBerry-like devices, officials said.

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