Unsuck DC Metro: Metro Implementing Electronic Elevator Status Alerts

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Metro Implementing Electronic Elevator Status Alerts

Today, a new link to something called "ELstat" appeared on the Metro website.

According to the blurb:

ELstat, Metro's elevator status application, can notify you if elevators are in or out of service at any Metrorail stations you select for monitoring. In case you need an elevator to access or leave our system, these alerts can help you plan for your trip ahead of time, or adjust to changes in elevator status while you are in transit.

You may configure alerts to be sent only on specific days at set times (a "specific time" alert), or throughout a time span, as elevator statuses change (an "interval" alert).

After creating an account linked to your email, phone number or both, you can choose how you want to be notified.

If you choose to receive your alerts via text message, you'll have to familiarize yourself with this list of station abbreviations.

According to the FAQ, the system's accuracy appears to depend on Metro personnel entering an out of service elevator into the system. Let's hope it doesn't end up like this.

I created an alert, which seemed to work fine. Don't know if it's actually sending out alerts. Metro said they'd let me know.

Comments (16)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

+6 Vote up Vote down

John · 715 weeks ago

Metro's biggest lies:
1) David Lacosse is a competent employee
2) We fix our escalators in 6 weeks or less (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!)
3) We accurately report escalator and elevator outages

+3 Vote up Vote down

varun · 715 weeks ago

Yes, but can you unsubscribe, or will you forever be haunted with failure messages, months and years after you stop riding the FailTrain?

+3 Vote up Vote down

@ChrisHowdy · 715 weeks ago

I wonder if they'll be any better at updating this system than they are at posting rail disruptions on Twitter and their web site,

+1 Vote up Vote down

Radner · 715 weeks ago

So its more cost effective to use and maintain this program than it is to fix the elevators? Are they conceding that their elevators are going to stay unreliable?

+6 Vote up Vote down

anon · 715 weeks ago

OK call me a debbie downer, but Metro has 5 elevators out of service right now in the entire system. How about just putting them on the front page of the Metro website?

To find out which are down, you have to scroll through this huge list of 130+ escalators Metro broke and try to spot the "ELE" abbreviation.

Metro completely lacks common sense.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

MetroOpensDoors · 715 weeks ago

Metro elevator and escalator outages ARE posted right on the home page of our website, on the middle of the left side under service status, where you can also see Rail delays and Bus detours.

+4 Vote up Vote down

dude · 715 weeks ago

Like an elevator is status is going to change over the course of a commute...or a century...

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 715 weeks ago

actually - elevators will die while one is in transit (especially Fort Totten).

I suppose I notice this more than the normal commuter since any station with a broken elevator = closed station. To change from the Red Line to the Green Line with an elevator broken @ FT I have to back track to GP... forget about going to the next station on the RL because Metro only does shuttle buses to the OUTAGE station, which puts me no closer to getting on a Green line train.

If BOTH FT and GP elevators are out and I'm in the system, I'm trapped. If it happens before a certain point on the Red line I'm merely stuck taking all buses with an extra hour added to my commute.

It'll be interesting to see if it works.

+5 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 715 weeks ago

"...the system's accuracy appears to depend on Metro personnel entering an out of service elevator into the system."____Which means it depends on which surly employee is entering the information and whether or not s/he gives a shit about his/her job.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

0 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 715 weeks ago

which the FY station manager does NOT. FT elevator was out the entire last week of May with nary a mention anywhere that it was inoperable until you got to the station and could physically observe the barrier.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Joshua · 715 weeks ago

I like that WMATA uses completely arbitrary abbreviations for the moble phone version that don't even match the abbreviations that they use for the next train displays. FTW!

+1 Vote up Vote down

xxx · 715 weeks ago

Talk about missing the forest for the trees. What a fucking waste.

-1 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 715 weeks ago

Having just returned from a week off I had forgotten to unsubscribe to Metro alerts for the blue/orange line. I had to filter them out to delete them all upon my return. It looked like a Metro spam attack in my inbox. Now they want me to sign up for more? hahahahhahaha!!!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

-1 Vote up Vote down

anon · 715 weeks ago

It's not Metro's fault that you were too dumb to unsubscribe.

-1 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 715 weeks ago

Did anyone else find it amusing that the stations with multiple names only abbreviate the first part? USTR for U Street/Cardozo/African American Civil War Museum for example.

It is not like they were set in stone when metro was founded either. Since National Airport's abbreviation starts with an r.

+1 Vote up Vote down

anonymous · 715 weeks ago

it would be nice if that means that the train status signs could show train status, instead of 5 minutes of elevator outages at stations I'm not going to.