You need to better understand what you are looking at before commenting on it. The outages are daily outages for a unit that has gone out of service, the majority of the time because a safety switch has tripped such as a coin dropped and getting lodged in the comb plates. This happens daily and on average 50 escalators are out of service for this. 98% of those outages are not for broken down escalators in need of serious repair. Some of the units on the list are escalators that are being modernized which occurs based on a schedule while the others are the daily outages. Get your facts straight instead of publishing some sensationailistic news story. What a joke of newspaper reporting!"
>> Daisy Wahn Monday, July 6, 2009 2:43 PM

If these daily outages are so simplistic then why does it take Metro so long to fix them? Also, in 2005 Metro spent $93 million to renovate 178 escalators but instead than a third have been breaking down more often than they did before. How do you like that fact Daisy?
>> Bruce Banner Monday, July 6, 2009 3:53 PM

Somehow escalators that are inoperable for DAYS because of a coin falling into the mechanism, is better than if there was a major issue? How much stimulus money is required for the Metro to figure out how to remove freaking coins from the escalators? The fact is the Metro is well funded, but poorly managed.
>> Maximillian Monday, July 6, 2009 4:08 PM

Once again misinformation is being quoted as a fact. At an average cost to rehabilitate Metro's escalator at $300,000, the cost to modernize the aging units is in the neighborhood of $50-$55 million, not $93 million. The difference in the number you quote against the real number is most likely the amount WMATA had to spend on contract labor to provide maintenance as mandated by the Board in 2003. Once againan check your facts before quoting misinformation.
>> Daisy Wahn Monday, July 6, 2009 5:01 PM

The 200+ escalators that have been modernzed since 2001 have safety switches that have been added during the rehab to make the units safer for the riders. This causes more shutdowns on the units since the switches are doing their jobs when an unsafe condition causes them to be tripped, many caused by the riders themselves. Dig below the numbers to find the facts as a good reporter would do.
>> Daisy Wahn Monday, July 6, 2009 5:12 PM

Wait wait...is that taking into account the higher union wages? It takes millions more for unions to work on projects due to the prevailing wage that must be paid. If you had private sector contracts, metro breaks, you call someone to fix it! You can't do that with your union contracts!
>> RightWinger Monday, July 6, 2009 5:13 PM

So daisy, you're trying to tell me that the Washington Post has its facts wrong??? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/04/AR2005060400350.html And it doesn't matter if $50 million was spent on "modernization" and the $43 went to maintenance, the point is that millions were clearly wasted because the escalators had more problems after they were "modernized". Neither the money spent on the "modernization" or maintenance rendered the issue!! Oh, btw...its again not "againan"...why should I trust facts from someone who can't even spell.
>> The Hulk Monday, July 6, 2009 5:25 PM

Elevator and escalator workers are part of a union, no matter if they work for Otis, Shindler or WMATA. It's all union labor.
>> Daisy Wahn Monday, July 6, 2009 5:27 PM

I don't think ATR is a magazine or a newspaper and that the people writing this are probably not reporters? Regardless, I've been to DC and the Metro system is inefficient and broken. More government money and more red tape are NOT the answers.
>> Greg in WA Monday, July 6, 2009 5:28 PM

Wow, it looks like Daisy is a WMATA spokeswoman.
>> Jon Monday, July 6, 2009 11:30 PM