Cops: Columbia Prof Punched Woman In "White Privilege" Brawl
Citibank To Charge All Accounts That Drop Below $1,500
GoCaGa, BoHo, iTri, And Other New Neighborhood Names
Bronx Teacher Suspended For Assigning Story On Masturbation
Despite Gay Brothers, State Sen. Diaz Still Anti-Gay Marriage
The MTA operates 182 passenger elevators and 176 escalators in the five boroughs, but some of them are out of service so often they might very well be cursed. The spookiest station is Herald Square, where three doomed escalators haven't moved an inch so far this year, and four others are quite often inoperative. Another notorious escalator at the Gun Hill Road station on the 2 and 5 lines in The Bronx broke down 61 times so far this year. And at one station on the Lexington Avenue line, vandals have ripped out the escalator handrail so often that workers are now trying to redesign the rail so that it can't be taken apart.
While fitter commuters can simply take the stairs, the malfunctions are obviously a big problem for elderly and disabled riders, and Gene Russianoff of the Straphanger's Campaign tells the Post, "You can't call them amenities. At some of these stations, like 52nd and Lexington, you could parachute down to the platform, it's so deep."
In an email to Gothamist, NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges fired back at the Post's article: "While the Post focuses on Herald Square, it's important to understand a fact omitted by the Post, namely that those escalators are under warranty repair by the contractor. The article also glossed over the fact that our system-wide availability is still 90% or better, and did not differentiate between scheduled outages for maintenance/repair and unscheduled outages due to failure.
"The paper also failed to mention that we have instituted a Scheduled Maintenance System (SMS) program through which crews will be replacing parts prone to failure prior to the end of their useful life which—as is the case of similar long standing successful programs for subway cars and buses—will increase the availability and reliability of the equipment. The text messaging system *will* be rolled out soon for elevators and escalators along with a new website, but all outages are currently posted on the website." OMG, more text messaging?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Yes, I know they are owned by Zeckendorf, but have the escalators at Union Square EVER worked? Hardly!
All MTA employees with any level of responsibility for escalators should be fired and forfeit all pension rights. If any of them had I.Q. scores over 100 (yeah, I know, but let's just pretend), they would realize that shopping malls are full of escalators yet they work almost all the time!
yeah, and shopping malls have metal dust collecting on all their parts 24 hours a day, too.
Two more awful stations for escalltor service: 64th and Lex and Roosevelt Island. Those platforms are DEEP, and the escalators are often out, and here's the thing-- you may go up one working escalator only to be confronted by a non-working one on the next level, with no warning. It sucks. And it you ever get to see the crews "working" on these things, get ready to laugh! Or cry.
I'm sure it would take too much money and time up-front, but more elevators would be a better long-term solution, no?
I always take the stairs, no matter what the station, but I understand there are plenty of passengers (elderly, infirm, pregnant, small children) who cannot. Elevators are much more reliable and use far less energy. Plus it would encourage those who are just a little out of shape to get some exercise.
Viable? Or, as I guessed, way too much of an investment?
Just another reason to drive a car.
YOUR GONNA DRIVE A CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF NEW YORK?
FUCKEN CLOWN YOU. THIS STAIRCASE IS FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU FROM IDAHO
Actually I come from Iowa. We don't have escalators there, we drive cars when we want to go somewhere.
NO CARS HERE BUDDY. Loose the stomach & Hop one the A. Cars are for Lazy Slobs.
Airport and mall escalators almost never break down. The subway system escalator program is a joke. I have used the 53rd and Lex stop (E,V) for 4 years and the escalator leading from the mezzanine up to the street has been broken the ENTIRE time. And it isn't listed on the MTA website. Seriously - 4 years. I don't care because I can walk up stairs, but people less fortunate are the ones who suffer. There is no excuse for a 4 year outage.
It's not as simple as saying: airports and malls always have working escalators. They also have internal security and their area size (mall vs. entire city) is different. Why not put up cameras at the areas that are most vandalized? Maybe catching the vandals might stop the continuing problem?
The vandals would steal the cameras then... The subways have been decaying for years. All they want to do is raise fares and expect us to be thankful the trains run at all.
I'm calling bullshit on the MTA. The super-long escalator at the North Exit of Grand Central @ 47th Street has been out of service for over a week. And this has happened fairly regularly in the past.
Their solution? They have an official sign saying it's out of service and 2 MTA uniformed employees standing there telling people the same thing and directing them to the JP Morgan building's escalator, which by the way always works.
Seriously, how can it take weeks to repair an escalator? Ridiculous!
Parts are not always available immediately, you know.
Airport and mall escalators are rarely fully loaded like transit escalators are. I don't have personal experience with NYC at rush hour, but in DC the left side of the escalator is used for walking, which puts much more stress on the machinery. People rarely walk up/down escalators in the mall or airport. Additionally, vandalism is much more common on transit escalators.
The Herald Square escalators have been out of service since last summer.
whaaa the auto-stair thingy won't move me up and down!
i realize ny'ers will never, ever pass up a chance to bitch, but is it really so hard to walk your own fat heiney up the stairs?
The problem is that some people actually need escalators and elevators, specifically the elderly and handicapped. I agree that the majority of people just like to complain and should be taking the stairs for their health anyway, but if you're going to advertise that a station has accessibility, and it stays broken for 12-18 months, you've got a problem.
Regardless, I think everyone can agree that the handicapped accessibility of the subway system is woefully inadequate.
i can of course agree with that. i'm all for accessibility for the disabled (elevators) but have limited sympathies for accessibility for the lazy (escalators).
Fair enough. I wonder, though, how many handicapped people can take escalators - presumably, anyone who isn't in a wheelchair?
A lot of the people I see using escalators are parents with strollers. Now, I don't want to start an argument over the merits (or lack thereof) of being a parent in the city, or over any sense of entitlement, but I would hardly call a mother with a stroller on the escalator "lazy".
Getting rid of escalators, though, would push any legitimate escalator users (stroller-pushers in my opinion) and the generally lazy to the elevators, and according to the MTA, more people using an elevator means it breaks apparently, so then handicapped people would be screwed even more.
The only way to fix it is hire people to stand near the elevators and only allow handicapped people on. Of course, if they could afford to hire someone to do that, it seems they could afford to hire someone to keep elevators and escalators working in the first place.
i do not advocate disposing of escalators, just the whining that occurs when anything inconveniences ny'ers in the slightest. and yes having a baby in the city comes with a whole lotta inconveniences, the least of which is a broken escalator. cheers!
You actually aren't allowed to bring a stroller onto an escalator (with a kid in it, I mean) -- it's super dangerous. There's even a recorded message in the Grand Central 7 stop telling you it's not allowed (not that anyone listens, of course)...
Then shut up and do the climb, some people actually need those escalators such as the elderly, disabled, if you happen to have heavy baggages, etc. It isn't rocket science fool.
Oh, please. Have you seen the flights of escalators at 64th & Lex? How would you like to walk up all the way with heavy packages? With bad knees? With a small child? Gimme a break! These complaints are legitimate!
every whiner thinks that their complaint is special, important, urgent, and earth-moving.
there is plenty of info available for MTA-riders that require special services in addition to that tax-payer funded service Access-a-Ride.
http://adaoutage.mta.info/adaoutage/
http://www.mta.info/nyct/paratran/guide.htm
but, of course, none of this will matter since all you really want to do is bitch about the MTA.
hotsteeper, are you from Kansas? Do you know how access a ride is a failed system and the escalators aren't just for disabled but for all who can't do the climb for many different reasons.(age, weight, packages etc). Why are you such a cold-hearted nasty person.
The fixed the both escalators at the E - V 23st Ely Av station.
Actually, this morning I walked by, and one was broken again...
Heh. I saw that comment soon after it was made and was about to post something like "give it a week."
But then I went through there just after noon today and already only the one closest to the G line was working. I should have said "give it an hour," apparently.
Their not escalators anyway. They do not escalate.
Maybe I've been lucky, but I had to get on/off at that Lex/64th stop 2-3 times per week for about 6 years, and I think one of the escalators was broken maybe twice or three times, and never the longest one. I think when they were broken, they made the escalators go up only since it's easier to walk down.
I think that station gets less vandalism because it's monitored more closely than you think (it's connected to a tunnel, so cameras and cops monitor activity).
The elevator on the other hand smells like week-old dog vomit. In general, all of the elevators in the subway system are beyond disgusting. I took the W 4th street one once, just for kicks, and felt like I needed a shower afterwards (and an oxygen tank).
No excuse for them being out of service. Maintain them, it's your job.
Fix it MTA. Do your jobs for once. The whole system is pathetic. Anyone ever come to 181st or 190th street stations on the A line? I swear one day those stations will just collapse from lack of maintenance. Dirty sludgy liquid leaking on peoples heads all the time.
It seems like the MTA isn't itself responsible for the repair and maintenance of escalators. They just tell the contractors that won the maintenance contracts which escalators are broken. The contractors in turn are then responsible to get things fixed up in a timely manner.
If that's correct, then the blame should be put on the contractors. There probably aren't any, but shouldn't there be penalties for delayed or lengthy repairs? Also I wouldn't be surprised if these maintenance contracts were awarded to either "friends" or to the lowest bidder. The third factor, which is hellish MTA bureaucratic red tape, is present in all scenarios.
Huh? That they hire contractors instead of their own employees doesn't mean that the MTA isn't still responsible for the operation of their own equipment.
If they hired contractors to operate trains, would they no longer be responsible for keeping the subway running?
I didn't mean that the responsibility isn't ultimately on the MTA, but if the contractors are holding things up the only recourse the MTA would have (besides any penalties specified) is to not award the maintenance contract to the same company the next year around.
The Columbus Circle station's escalator never seems to work (the one going down) either. And I agree with sharpshoota and the 181st A Train stop. It's NASTY.
oddly, the escalators are almost ALWAYS working at the Smith/9th Street station--one of THE most crappy stations in the system.