Metro Riders Frustrated Over Broken Escalators and Elevators

WASHINGTON - Broken escalators and elevators are starting to feel more like the norm than the exception on Metro these days.

In 2007, nearly 94 per cent of the escalators were working. In 2008, only 93 per cent worked. Now it's down to just 90 per cent.

It's aggravating to riders and frustrating for the transit agency as well.

At the Van Ness Station, three of its escalators are out of service, one of them getting a complete rehab.

Signs explain that the broken escalator has carried millions of riders and is need of modernization, that will take until May to complete.

Metro is so sensitive about the chronic problem, only Metro Board member Jim Graham would talk to Fox-5 on camera about the problem.

Grahan explained weather has been a factor, especially the recent snow storms, that's causing water intrusion problems. He says canopies built over the escalators in recent years have helped.

He also says the system is aging, and many of the companies who built the escalators have gone out of business, so it's difficult to get parts.

Graham says Metro has set up a lab at Cardozo High School, where they are training young people for careers in repairing escalators and elevators.

Metro is in the middle of a $50 million program to overhaul more than 200 of its 588 escalators.

LINK: Elevator & Escalator Service Status