Unsuck DC Metro: Mystery Worker Removed Barrier at Tenleytown

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Mystery Worker Removed Barrier at Tenleytown

Illustration

So much for taking some time off for the holidays.

On Nov. 16, several Metro riders were greeted with a scary sight at Tenleytown.

As they climbed what appeared to be a run of the mill broken escalator, they arrived near the top to see a gaping hole where some steps were missing because the escalator was under repair.

You can read about the incident here, but the really amazing facts emerged today during a Metro meeting.

Seems someone "appearing" to be a Metro worker removed one of the accordion barriers that seem to adorn every other escalator in the system from in front of the Tenleytown unit.

The reason the word "appearing" was used is that despite the culprit having a radio and a key to turn off and on escalators, the film from the video surveillance camera was "grainy," so they can't be 99 percent sure it really was a Metro worker.

Worse still, they have no way of tracking down who it was, and more than a month later, they still don't seem to know who did this and why

So what are the brainiacs at Metro going to do to solve the problem?

They're now looking into some way to make the barriers clamp down to the escalator units so they're not as easy to remove.

They're also going to upgrade the video surveillance system.

Those will no doubt cost money, probably not a lot, but still.

Sounds just like the screaming bus solution: find a technological or physical "solution" to try to fix a culture that is all too often irresponsible and unsafe.

Instead, Metro, why don't you have some kind of system in place, so that you know who tinkers with your escalators and who might have been "on duty" that day?

How about finding out who did this, and firing them for endangering the lives of riders because that's exactly what they did.

In the end, this dangerous situation was remedied by, you guessed it, a rider who was able to find a cone (not hard) and put it in front of the broken escalator to prevent more people from climbing up.

What did that rider get for his or her initiative?

A fare increase and a cracked rail.

Photo: afagen

Comments (18)

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+6 Vote up Vote down

Unhappy Holiday · 744 weeks ago

FU Metro, seriously FU

-10 Vote up Vote down

GDopplerXT · 744 weeks ago

Arggh, for once I was pretty much right there with you, all the way up to the last two lines. The last two lines are pointless and nonsensical and, to me, kind of sum up why this blog is just a gripe-fest and not a venue for serious thinking.

5 replies · active 744 weeks ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 744 weeks ago

Uh. Do you even read the blog?

-5 Vote up Vote down

GDopplerXT · 744 weeks ago

Almost every day, in fact. A lot of the stuff is good, but when it is it usually ends up undermining it's own weight with some churlish remark(s) like the last two lines of this post.

And don't get me started on the posts where you just randomly post some unverified rant letter that you get via email from readers. They often ring true, but all it does is provide everyone a chance to (yet again) stand around and scream stuff like our eloquent friend "Unhappy Holiday" a few posts up. I know it's satisfying to vent, but I don't rate it very highly as the theme of a blog.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Ummmmm · 744 weeks ago

"Don't get me started" = I'm going to whine about it anyway.

+5 Vote up Vote down

· 744 weeks ago

The last two lines are RIGHT ON TARGET. Metro keeps asking more and more from us, mostly in money, but it would also seem we're expected to block off escalators, save passengers and break up mobs.

And now they want to search my purse?

I AM DONE WITH THEM

+3 Vote up Vote down

anonymoust · 744 weeks ago

sad to say but seriousthinking.com won't be e very popular blog.

i hear what you're saying about this blog, but overall, i think it has been a great benefit, both as a place to vent, but also as a breaking new site that has affected some real change.

+5 Vote up Vote down

Unhappy Holiday · 744 weeks ago

Greater Greater Washington is a great place for those who think seriously of trying to blame anyone or anything but metro. Enjoy

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

@deafinthecity · 744 weeks ago

GGW is full of metro apologists.

"Commenter: there was a explosive on the orange line and I almost went blind
GGW: Metro future's So Bright, you Gotta Wear Shades. "

+5 Vote up Vote down

John · 744 weeks ago

As always, Fire David Lacosse. He doesn't run a tight ship at all.

Not to say metro does at all, but this department is a complete joke...

We shouldn't even know who Lacosse is....

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+5 Vote up Vote down

Ummmmm · 744 weeks ago

We don't really know who he is. Nobody can find him!

+5 Vote up Vote down

John · 744 weeks ago

Good Point... he doesn't show up to work... yet hes collecting 250k+ a year....

Good thing thats where our fare increases went....

+6 Vote up Vote down

VeggieTart · 744 weeks ago

And another of my gripes: If you're going to have only ONE escalator functioning, maybe it should be going UP so those who have to walk can work wtih gravity? Better yet, why not find a way to have an escalator system where you don't have to order parts from all different companies because the equipment at one station is different from the equipment at another.

That this happened is just appalling. And that Metro does use band-aid fixes (just wait until they can't get the barrier off the escalator!). But i will say it's possible some miscreant removed the barrier, well aware that the surveillance cameras produce poor-quality images. Or that he would get away with it.

-3 Vote up Vote down

anon · 744 weeks ago

Metro handled this correctly. Their plan is to make it so that those barriers can't be moved easily. Why is this a bad thing? The post doesn't make it clear at all. They also aim to upgrade their surveillance system. Again, a good thing.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

anon · 744 weeks ago

Neither solution is bad. What led to them IS bad, but here are your alternatives: for the first, they could leave things the way they are, thus allowing some other mystery person - perhaps an actual terrorist, mind you - to move the barriers and cause people harm; for the second, the system could remain flawed, thus making it that much tougher to figure out who's doing what.

And that's the flaw of this blog right there. Something happens, Metro does something proactive to make sure it doesn't happen, and the posts generally ignore the solutions to preventing the situation from happening again in favor of complaining about the situation itself. I mean, it's not as if Metro can just wish that it never happened - so they try to make sure that it doesn't.

Granted, their track record is pretty bad. But it's the height of cynicism if we just assume nothing will ever change in any way, for all time, because that makes this blog itself completely pointless.

0 Vote up Vote down

Justa Rider · 742 weeks ago

The video surveillance system is a brand new system at Tenleytown. The system is not intended to identify or monitor vigilance...it is intended to monitor crowds from my understanding. If it was intended for security and identifying there would be at least 2 recorded and monitored cameras on any publicly accessed area.

It is unfortunate that situations like these arise, many depts work in the same location. Some work together and others...not so much. I am sure the "metro worker" thought he was helping by opening up the esc. so that some bitching customer could use it.

Just remember your outside looking in, join metro if you would like to make a difference instead of bitching about it...then you can try to unsuck it yourself.

Also...quit complaining about fair increases, despite them these union workers haven't had an increase in over 3 years, yet healthcare, gas, food, etc. has substantially increased.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Canemaker · 744 weeks ago

what I find most disturbing is that metro has video they can't use; since 9-11 I wuld think having usable video is critical, and certainly with today's technology someone could head down to radio shack and hook up a system for $200 that is better than what they are apparently using...

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Wayne · 742 weeks ago

Another example of common sense not applying to Metro. I mean you can't be sure it was their employee, the outfit and key is obviously not enough to conclude that.

To aggregate my expereince with metro, and maybe gather others, I started a website groupsmack.com, which has a challenge for metro where you can show how many broken escalators, wait times, etc. there are.