Metro’s elevators and escalators, which can seem to be perpetually broken, have been performing better in recent months and are now reaching or surpassing Metro’s performance goals.
Metro’s escalators were available 88.3 percent of the time in July 2006, but have been more reliable since then, reaching a 95.5 percent performance rate in January, the transit agency’s statistics show.
That beats Metro’s goal of having escalators available 93 percent of the time. Elevator service climbed steadily from 93.4 percent in July 2006 to 97.1 percent in January — almost reaching Metro’s 97.5 percent service goal.
General Manager John Catoe last month acknowledged the improvements, but told a Board of Directors committee he understands the agency could be more consistent about placing signs when there are mechanical breakdowns.
“That’s one thing I’ve heard loud and clear from the committee — we need to be better about informing our customers when things are out of service,” he said.
Despite the improvements, some stations are still plagued by persistent breakdowns.
Metro board member and D.C. Councilman Jim Graham last month asked the agency to provide a list of the 12 stations with the most elevator and escalator outages — dubbed the “Dirty Dozen.”
“Without that window, you have ratings that show a high percentage of performance, but you don’t have a sense of the low-performing escalators and elevators, and the low-performing ones are a problem in the system,” Graham said.
The list, which is scheduled to be presented to a Metro board committee Thursday, shows that one Anacostia escalator broke down 20 times in February alone.
A Cleveland Park escalator and one in Congress Heights each broke down 17 times that month, followed by Tenleytown and Dupont Circle, which had 16 and 15 outages, respectively.
Columbia Heights topped the elevator outage list in February, with two elevators breaking down a combined 24 times at that station. Waterfront, Cleveland Park and Brookland rounded out the top five.
