Are the Elevators Just as Screwed?

Photo via Michael, whose story is below.

The escalators get all the attention, but these stories make me think the elevators--there are 237 of them--are riddled with problems, too.

From Cheryl:

I had a VERY scary incident at the 7th Street elevator at Gallery Place/Chinatown. around 5:00 p.m. on July 28.

When I got to it, the doors were cracked open, and I assumed the door was just closing so I put my hand in the open slot, and the door opened.

I was about to step on, and looked down because those elevators are used as urinals on a daily basis, so I always look down so I don't step in any puddles.

There was NO ELEVATOR. It was two floors down.

I nearly fell forward, and was saved by grabbing on to the sides of the door to regain my balance.

I came VERY close be being either seriously injured, or even killed!

I've reported it to Metro--not that they'll do anything about it.

This is an outrageous situation. They have hordes of out of control teens entering through those elevators, threatening people, pushing and cussing at people, and jumping the gates EVERY SINGLE DAY without anyone at Metro monitoring that area.

Now, I nearly drop two stories into an elevator shaft!

Must I put my life in jeopardy daily to ride Metro? Apparently so!

From Andrea:

I live at Navy Yard and have a young son that still needs a stroller, so we use the elevators quite often.

One evening with son and husband in tow, we took the elevator from the platform to the mezzanine only to have the elevator doors begin OPENING about a foot and half before the floor of the elevator reached the floor of the mezzanine.

Startled, we reported the incident to an indifferent station manager who didn't get off the phone long enough to listen to our report.

Thinking this might be a one time incident, we let it go.

However, it's happened TWO more times since, reporting the incident to station managers each time.

It always when the elevator is going up. I can't even begin to think of all the things that could go wrong because of this malfunction.

But what's more bothersome is the apparent lack of concern for the safety of customers from the station managers.

From Michael:

I've attached a pic of the only elevator at the Vienna Metro station. This elevator was originally down for maintenance and scheduled to be back in service on July 18. That date was changed on July 19 to indicate that the elevator would be back in service on July 20th.

However, the picture shows you what you found if you attempted to use the elevator the morning of July 22 at 7:45 a.m. from the platform level.

Other items:
Metro renews MetroAccess contract (press release)
Metro workers perform at Kennedy Center (WaPo)