Elevators and escalators
Elevator and escalator rehabilitation news
You asked and we heard you! Metro is committed to keeping its customers informed about the progress of our Elevator and Escalator Rehabilitation Program.
Here is a page dedicated to providing you with all the information you need about our elevators and escalators before you even get to your station! For your convenience, there is a link from this page to an updated list of elevators and escalator outages within our Metro system. We are also providing you with a list of the major escalator rehabilitation projects that are taking place in our system. These rehabilitation projects last approximately three to four months.
If you need to know which elevators are out of service, you can sign up for our Electronic Elevator Notification service or ELLEN which will notify you electronically via e-mail. Therefore, in case you will need an elevator to access our system, you can plan for your trip ahead of time.
Want to know more about Metro's Elevators and Escalators Program? See the "On Our Way Back Up" brochure and for more information and interesting facts on our elevators and escalators, visit our link to "Elevators/escalator facts."
Background information
Metro has 588 escalators throughout the system, more than any other transit system in North America, and 252 elevators.
Metro's Elevators and Escalators Program, undertaken in 2000, scheduled to be completed - on time - in 2006, includes the rehabilitation of Metro's oldest and worst performing escalators - 170 in all. To date, 144 of the 170 have been rehabilitated, so we only have 26 to go!
Customers' investment in the system through the fare increase is now paying off! Thanks to the extra funds we received from our fare increases, we were able to step up our work schedule and make our escalators and elevators more reliable than ever. In fact, on an average day, only eight percent of our escalators and three percent of our elevators are out of service.
In addition, a rehabilitation has been completed on 14 system elevators with another 61 to be completed by 2008. These efforts, while sometimes inconvenient, will improve the Metrorail system in the long run.
In 1997 Metro began a mechanical rehabilitation program on 32 elevators and also began ADA upgrades on an additional 104. This program was completed in 2004. Metro embarked on this capital investment strategy to rehabilitate the units and to improve customer service.
Finally, a remote monitoring system is to be installed to manage equipment with an automated dispatching capability, which will allow us to improve the response and turnaround time on malfunctioning elevators and escalators.
Our priority is the safety of our customers and employees so rehabilitating our elevators and escalators is a priority. We are working hard to minimize any inconveniences the rehabilitation program may cause. See more information on escalator safety.
