Typical weekday commutes are becoming a little annoying. I am an enthusiast of the transit system and ride Metro and local buses to and from work everyday. However, lately my morning and afternoon commutes have become, for lack of a better term, ANNOYING.
Scenario: I arrive at Rosslyn to find one escalator is completely blocked off and torn apart and the other one is stopped. That's ok I have 2 perfectly fine legs I can walk up the escalator with the 50 or so other people getting off the train. The annoying part is when one person decides they cannot wait for the group of people to get up the escalator and they need to push their way down when there isn't even a train on the platform. Simply wait your turn, the platform is not going anywhere and the next train is a few minutes away.
Then I leave work and intend to meet some friends for dinner in DuPont and surprise surprise the escalators are malfunctioning there as well! Which is also fine, I can understand maintenance and random problems. What I don't understand is why 2 of the 3 escalators are stopped and the only one working properly is descending. A couple minutes and one lung less I make it to the top of the escalator panting and sweating wondering why they wouldn't switch the direction of the only functioning escalator so that people would not have to trek up one of the longest metro escalators in the system.
So why are thee so many escalators malfunctioning or needing maintenance at the same time? On WMATA's website it states that these closures are due to "Elevator and Escalator Rehabilitation Program" which will modernize the system. Each escalator will take anywhere from 3-4 months depending on the nature of the rehab. Visit this link: http://www.wmata.com/riding/eles_maint.cfm to see which elevators/escalators are currently out of service. It also states that only 8% of escalators are out of service at any one time, so of the 536 escalators in the DC Metro system only 43 should be out at any one time. There are the average maintenance problems as well which will add to the list but as a whole, this is not very many to be out at any one time. This is an ongoing project to ensure the system is safe and functioning properly.
Metro is trying to keep the public abreast of the outages by offering an e-mail notification for the elevator outages that you can sign up for at: http://www.wmata.com/riding/ellen/ellen.cfm and a general email alert system that otifies you of rail disruptions at http://www.wmata.com/riding/alerts/metrorail_alerts.cfm.
How to deal: even with the slight headache of the escalator outages i will still continue to "ride the rail." My advice to everyone out there is to realize that projects like this need to happen and the Metro system will be better when it is finished. Remember your manners and take a few extra minutes to get where you are going so that everyone is happy; no one likes a grumpy commuter.
- Cheryl O'Connor works for Arlington Transportation Partners in the Residential and Visitors' Services outreach programs. cheryl.oconnor@transpartners.com.
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