We’ve often joked in the past about the poor reputation of Metro’s escalators and elevators. Rare is the Metrorail trip that does not include a loudspeaker announcement informing customers of all the latest elevator outages. Station escalators seem so often out of order, we’ve even suggested giving up and calling them by a more accurate name: stairs. But this morning, via the Examiner, Metro is reporting that its escalators reached a 95.5 percent performance rate in January of this year. That’s a significant improvement over the low of 88.3 percent availability in the summer of 2006. Elevator service has similarly improved, reaching 97.1 percent in January.

The story quotes Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham as asking the important question here: But which escalators and elevators are constantly breaking down? Metro has compiled a list of the top 12 problem stations, which will be presented to a Metro board committee on Thursday. It includes Anacostia, which had a single escalator break 20 times in February, along with Cleveland Park, Congress Heights, Tenleytown and Dupont Circle. Columbia Heights, Waterfront, Cleveland Park and Brookland have the worst number of elevator outages.

Have you noticed an improvement in escalator and elevator availability at your station?

Photo by JamesCalder