Elevator, escalator maintenance efforts paying off, NYCT says

MTA New York City Transit’s (NYCT) “aggressive efforts” to perform scheduled maintenance of subway elevators and escalators are helping to improve their reliability, agency officials said in a prepared statement.

In the first quarter, elevator reliability was 98.1 percent, up from 96.7 percent in 2010; and escalator reliability was at 96.2 percent, up from 91.6 percent in 2010, they said.

During the past several months, NYCT has expanded its focus to address shortcomings in elevator and escalator reliability by performing scheduled maintenance on equipment 24 hours a day, seven days a week to minimize the length of equipment outages, agency officials said.

"We know how a broken elevator or escalator, no matter how long, can impact a customer's trip, especially for our disabled riders," said NYCT President Thomas Prendergast. "Through new leadership and an increased focus on preventative maintenance and faster response times to outages, we have been able to improve our equipment's reliability in order to provide a safer, more seamless trip to our riding public.

The elevator and escalator division is responsible for maintaining 235 elevators, 178 escalators and two power walks.