Unsuck DC Metro: Will an Additional $6.8 Million Make the Escalators Work?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Will an Additional $6.8 Million Make the Escalators Work?

via @TrentTheArtist: How you have a line to get on the escalator @unsuckdcmetro #unionstation #redline #wmata http://t.co/uHKUPaZ

Probably not.

Why?

Because Metro pays handsomely for outside, expert consultants to make solid recommendations and then doesn't listen to them.

We all remember how Metro was warned, last fall, by an outside consultant about worn brake pads on the escalators, but Metro didn't do anything about it until the collapse at L'Enfant.

The same report warned of the problems with the pick system.

Now, according to the Examiner, Metro wants to hire up to 55 more escalator/elevator workers at a cost of $6.8 million of your money, but that's not the whole story.

The same comprehensive report about the worn brakes and pick system explicitly warns Metro that hiring more workers will not solve their deep-rooted problems.

"The field staffing appears to be at an acceptable level."

and

"It is VTX’s [the outside consultant] opinion that just adding field personnel will not solve or minimize the issues of concern."

According to the report, "WMATA is currently budgeted for 142 mechanic positions. At the time of the performance of equipment assessments, only 137 mechanics were on staff."

Sounds like Metro needs 5, not 55.

Clerical error?

We all know how sloppy Metro is with the details.

The real problem?

"Many of Metro's escalator workers don't know what they're doing," said a retired escalator tech who worked for Metro. "They can't keep up, and they never will under the current arrangement. We used to maintain those escalators with just over 60 workers."

They pointed to a lack of ongoing training for Metro's escalator repair staff, a shortfall also cited in the report as a major obstacle to Metro getting its vertical transportation act together.

Other items:
Adding money to SmarTrip via computer? (WaPo)
Metro employee encourages harassment (Hollaback DC)
Memo to DC Metro (Tao of the Original Tracy Tran)
Let's hope this doesn't happen here (NBC Chicago)

Comments (36)

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+3 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 720 weeks ago

I wouldn't mind the escalators if the air conditioning worked. Then again I don't use Dupont or Wheaton that often.

Fire Sarles. And the Board. And make the positions elected by the general public.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+5 Vote up Vote down

soylent green line · 720 weeks ago

Screw that - DC, MD, and VA should sell the entire WMATA infrastucture to a private company, that could in turn fire every employee with the possibility of rehire based on each individual's ability to actuall perform the work they're paid - by us - to do.

+4 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 720 weeks ago

Screw that...have you tried driving 495 in Nova lately? Public resources are the publics.

+11 Vote up Vote down

soylent green line · 720 weeks ago

But the vindication of watching all of their sorry asses get fired would feel so good, wouldn't it?

+13 Vote up Vote down

ANON · 720 weeks ago

Wait a minute. Metro wants to staff up to nearly 200 when it used to be done by 60?

It's a jobs program, not an escalator program.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 720 weeks ago

I bet ATU 689 is somehow behind it...

+6 Vote up Vote down

hrh king friday 13 · 720 weeks ago

Agreed! Although, is it really a jobs program if they don't actually do any work? It's more like an elaborate welfare program.

0 Vote up Vote down

jakeod · 720 weeks ago

But when the maintenance was done by 60, the escalators weren't as old. Aging escalators naturally need more work and thus more mechanics (but probably not 300% as many).

+20 Vote up Vote down

VeggieTart · 720 weeks ago

Until Metro gets rid of the culture of "we don't give a shit", the problems will continue.

+7 Vote up Vote down

John · 720 weeks ago

As long as David Lacosse is in charge of supplying the Parts that are being used to fix the escalators, the escalators will remain a problem. That guy is a freaking plague.

FIRE
DAVID
LACOSSE!

+16 Vote up Vote down

Jerry · 720 weeks ago

So they need more workers to not work? I don't get it.

+10 Vote up Vote down

Corresponding Toads · 720 weeks ago

Throw enough personnel at a problem, and it's bound to get fixed! Just like how shooting all that garbage eventually stopped the oil from spilling in the gulf. Right guys??

Hey on a serious note, I'm thinking of starting an elite team of escalator repairmen (maybe 5 people total). I plan on training this team to the fullest, after which we will all apply for jobs at Metro simultaneously. If Metro refuses to hire one of us, then they will get none of us. BUT, if they hire all 5 of us, we will actually repair escalators. LIKE ACTUALLY REPAIR ESCALATORS!!

Corresponding Toads' Repair Team 5 - now accepting applications.

5 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

-1 Vote up Vote down

soylent green line · 720 weeks ago

Only if you train us in escalator sabotage, too. I"m thinking covert operations that somehow combine flip-flops, obese tourists, and eating on the Metro.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Everly Anon · 720 weeks ago

I have no clue how to repair escalators but I can drink a beer. I'll be a perfect Metro employee. Sign me up Toads!

+3 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 720 weeks ago

Maybe you could be an outlaw repairman, like Robert DeNiro in Brazil.

+3 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 720 weeks ago

Love that movie!

+1 Vote up Vote down

ANON · 720 weeks ago

YOU COULDN'T FIX A PEANUT BUTTER AND JELL SANDWICH.

+5 Vote up Vote down

soylent green line · 720 weeks ago

Every morning, I take the Blue or Orange line from L'Enfant to Rosslyn. Every morning - for at least a month, if not more - the up escalator at the far end of the platform (I always board as close as possible to the front of the train, where there are usually more seats available) has been out of service. I point this out because I remember one glorious morning when the escalator was actually functional, which in turn meant that it took less than a minute waiting in line for a turn to climb the stairs. Yes, the long-broken escalator had finally been repaired.

Of course, the next day it was broken again. Since then, I haven't seen any movement to repair it again. What kind of repairs are WMATA employees making if they only last a day?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 720 weeks ago

That escalator has problems (obviously) - The handrail gets slowed down too much to the point where the escalator stops moving because of the differential. Too many people leaning/sitting on it.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 720 weeks ago

Metro also beefing up communications staff to try to spin their bs. fail

+11 Vote up Vote down

Anonymouse · 720 weeks ago

Assume the fare hike position.

+1 Vote up Vote down

TFUNK · 720 weeks ago

Unrelated nasty... On metro today, I could hear someone clipping his or her nails a couple of seats behind me and the person in front of me was cleaning out his ears with a Q-tip. Nasty people.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

Anon and Ever · 720 weeks ago

Someone threw up in front of the faregates at New Carrollton yesterday afternoon. Guess metro has no mops. They just put cones around it so you would not slip in it. eewww.

+10 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 720 weeks ago

It's probably against union rules for the workers to clean up vomit.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 720 weeks ago

I have seen them wandering around with brooms but I am not sure why .... the areas are as filthy before they were there than after. All I can work out is the employee with them is usually an escalefter or trying to take over the elevator from people who, at least according to the signs, have priority.

Vomit on the platforms that eventually just wore away (it was never actually mopped up). Vomit on the inside of trains on the doors. I think we need a new twitter tag: #vomitcar .

+5 Vote up Vote down

Just saying · 720 weeks ago

They need to hired back the outside company that was maintaining the escalators in the first place AND replace some of the escalators with stairs. That can save them money.

0 Vote up Vote down

Everly Anonerly · 720 weeks ago

Hey come on Unsuck folks! Now you know Mr. Strudel will get those moving stairs moving again... just as soon as he's finished with his breakfast pastry, I'm sure. :D

+11 Vote up Vote down

stupidraidersfan 80p · 720 weeks ago

I have a feeling a blank check wouldn't make the escalators work.

+3 Vote up Vote down

mike · 720 weeks ago

"Many of Metro's escalator workers don't know what they're doing,"
Correction- Many of Metro workers, don't know what they are doing and don't care.
Just like they have naming rights to the stadium, lets take one station, sell the naming rights to the escalators and have that company be responsible. I think we would get a 99% run rate like you see in most stores that have escalators. Of course this escalator work would have to be done by an outside company that actually wants to see the escalators run. Not the flunkies that do the work now.

+5 Vote up Vote down

anon · 720 weeks ago

Metro: Throwing money at problems since 1976.

0 Vote up Vote down

@europamo · 720 weeks ago

Elmo could run #wmata better at this point @unsuckdcmetro

+1 Vote up Vote down

Fed up with Metro · 720 weeks ago

They need to outsource the escalator maintenance and repair work. Why? Then they can fix the damned things during off-peak hours and not worry about how much overtime has to be paid out since they'll be under a contract. By trying to do the work now during daytime hours is dragging out the jobs much to long and costing them even more than if they just shelled out the OT to begin with! In NY most escalators which are taken out of service were fixed overnight. This situation in Metro where escalators in major transfer stations like L'Enfant Plaza, Gallery Place and Metro Center, are out of service for weeks at a time, is deplorable. What happened to all the money they wasted a few years ago on an escalator/elevator repair school? Looks like that's working out real well.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

-3 Vote up Vote down

ANON · 720 weeks ago

You're an idiot the escalators are being completely rebuilt and can't be done overnight.

YOU'RE SHOWING YOUR LACK OF COMMON SENSE.

-1 Vote up Vote down

mike · 719 weeks ago

A typical response from a Metro Troll- go back to your 8 hr paid nap.

-1 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 720 weeks ago

Most of you are all over the place with your comments, Must be "wild friday". Not only are the escalators over30 yrs old but they used to be serviced by the escalator company who built them...... problem was as they started to age it was discovered that the elevator company employees were not actually doing the work they reported.. yeah , fraud, not just METRO. Training elevator escalator mechanics is costly, and ELES mechanixs can earn much more outside of METRO. so metro looses there experienced mechanics. This same ELES company makes it very difficult to obtain parts. So why don't you send some unsuck messages to the ELES company.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

ANON · 720 weeks ago

Not true, eles mechanic's make more then local 10 mechanics and metro has been doing the maintenance since 1992.The local 10 westihghouse mechanics always did the the proper maintenance to keep the escalators running and safe. From 2000 to 2010 local 10 had some of the escalators for maintenance and service and had to maintian 98 percent running at all times and did. Metro can't even get 90 percent ruuing at any time.

TRY AGAIN METRO EMPLOYEE