Metro's elevator contract: bloated or sensible?

Transit officials across the U.S. are frequently complaining how little money there is for mass transit. They often make a persuasive case.

That said, I ask you to consider item No. 25 on today's Metro Board agenda: It's a five-year contract for nearly $2.1 million for Mitsubishi to maintain thefour escalators and 19 elevators in the headquarters building for Metro.

In its report from staff, Metro says its own workers aren't qualified to work on the escalators and elevators. This sounds reasonable enough until you consider this: Metro's own staff is running light rail trains and a subway and all sorts of other techie stuff! Perhaps -- just perhaps -- the solution is to hire an elevator repair person!

Just my two cents.

--Steve Hymon

Comments

[Randall BusTard]

For the amount of service work that I observe while riding the Red Line, I must argue that it is more than merely kids playing pranks by hitting that stop button. Moreover, Metro has cameras at the base of many of the escalators. (Look up when you are down there.) Why is it that Metro camera operators are not instructed to inform the proper department that an escalator has stopped running, and have someone contact the respective station's custodian (I know they carry keys as I have seen them stoop and reach into that little foot-long box at bottom on the left side) if the problem is frequently "irresponsible youths"?
Even now, I am working on an archival print project with an experienced independent elevator repairman who has two decades of work in the downtown/Pico-Union area, and whom I have known for a decade; many stories there as well as quite a bit about real costs and how lifts/escalators works—and not a few scams regarding the companies that service area lifts.

[Kymberleigh Richards]

Incidentally, the vast majority of escalator stoppages are not due to mechanical problems but rather to irresponsible youths who think it is "fun" to push the emergency stop buttons.

And since state law prohibits the remote starting of a stopped escalator (safety concerns, to prevent it being started when someone is standing on it), someone with the key has to go to the location and manually restart it after this mischevious behavior.

This is why I, for a few years now, have carried with me a set of Metro Rail escalator keys. I have been trained to restart them, and I do so whenever my travels take me to a station where someone has decided to have their "fun". I may not be there every time and every place an escalator gets stopped, but at least I can get some of them restarted faster than they would otherwise.

It helps, by the way, if you use the emergency telephone in the stations to advise Metro when an escalator is stopped.

[Kymberleigh Richards]

M,

Mitsubishi is the existing contract service operator for repairs to elevators and escalators at Metro Rail stations.

To me, it makes sense to have them handling the headquarters building as well.

In any event, the agenda item passed this morning without discussion.

[SoapBoxLA]

Connect the Metro HQ escalators and elevators to the Metro system facilities so that if an escalator or elevator anywhere in the County goes down, a corresponding escalator or elevator at HeadQuarters will stop running.

That would motivate them to take care of the Uni Station, the H & Western Station and some of the others with abysmal performance records.

(They do keep records, don't they?)

I was gonna pop this one in the Metro suggestion box while I was at the Taj Mahal today but I couldn't it.

(They do take suggestions, don't they?)

On a serious note, we should poll the Mitsubishi staff and ask them about the different equipment that they service. Those who I have spoken to are quite frank about the reasons some of our stations have so many problems. We've been had! We've purchased some bad gear and then allowed it to be installed poorly. We are now paying the price it's now not a question of "if" but "when" we replace it.

[perks]

As much as I hate the thought of coming to Metro's defense, I think we need to look at the bigger picture here.

How much of the techie work actually gets done at or very close to headquarters? Not a whole bunch.

If we ignore the escalators entirely, that's just over $22k per elevator per year. I'm assuming that the costs would include parts, lubricants, etc., none of which come cheaply, in addition to labor.

My experience, which I admit has only been by observing the occasional elevator repair guys in various buildings where I've worked, is that elevator repairmen tend to work in teams, which would make sense in case you had to diagnose and fix a problem from several floors apart.

Having one or even two guys probably wouldn't cut it. Especially since someone pretty much has to be on call 24 hours a day, every day, in case something goes wrong.

[M]

Who works on the escalators and elevators in the Metro train stations?

[Oscar]

Just to play devil's advocate here...

an elevator running one or two floors isn't quite the same as operating one in a mutli-story office tower.

I think most of the office towers in downtown have contracts with one or another elevator company for repairs and maintenance.

I'd like to hear a building manager's take on it.