More Escalating Incompetence

Previously, I wrote about Kone, the company that the MBTA contracts with to provide escalator and elevator maintenance. Now, Kone has gotten the MBTA in hot water with the Federal Transit Administration, the federal agency that helps ensure accessibility as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  See, when escalators and elevators are broken for seven months, that causes a bit of problem for those who are disabled and depend upon them to navigate their way through public transportation.

According to Mac Daniel of The Boston Globe:

"The number of broken or out-of-service escalators and elevators at MBTA stations hit a five-year high in the past few months, prompting the Federal Transit Administration to begin monitoring the problem, officials said yesterday....The federal agency…could withhold federal transit money if the situation does not improve.”

Meanwhile, according to the Globe T officials are blaming Kone, and Kone in turn blames the “harsh winter and efforts to upgrade emergency telephones in T elevators” for the service issues. The harsh winter had no comment.

Let me understand this.  The elevators were out of service because you were putting emergency telephones in them.  So that people could get help if they were stuck in the elevators.  Which would be far less likely to happen if you focused on fixing the elevators.

Moreover, harsh weather is outside.  Elevators and escalators are inside.

According to the Globe, the MBTA “is also considering hiring specialists in elevator and escalator maintenance.” 

Hiring specialists in elevator and escalator maintentance?  What a brilliant way to address the problem! Isn’t that what you’re paying Kone $3.5 million for? If I were having brain surgery, and my neurosurgeon told me she was hiring a specialist for the brain surgery part of her clinical care, and billing me for it, I'd be a little pissed off.

Meanwhile, at the Arlington Street T station today, the familiar, yellow Kone barrier was blocking the escalator once again.  There was a handwritten note on the barrier that read that the escalator would be out of service from April 6 to April 13, due to an upgrade.  Today is the 15th.   I imagine the Koneheads are hard at work, installing emergency Morse code transmitters on the handrail, so that anyone stuck on the broken escalator would be able to send an SOS.

Comments

[Robert]

I think I know why KONE is having such problems with incompetence— they are spread too thin! Why, just one look at their international page shows that are in many eyebrow-raising countries such as Iran, Egypt and Pakistan but most importantly....Irak! If you don't believe me, check it out for yourself....http://www.kone.com/TunnelPage

[Ellen]

Irak! Of course! Irak is in great need of eskalator maintenance!