Escalators Survive Tourists, Tree Roots Not So Much
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WHILE THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS are certainly beautiful, the throngs of visitors that make their way down to the Tidal Basin can do quite a bit of damage. As The Post's Michael E. Ruane reports, the tourists have taken their toll on the oldest of the trees as "the soil around the roots has suffered decades of suffocating 'compaction' from millions of visitors' feet," among other problems.
On Tuesday, Metrorail saw its second-highest ridership day and it's safe to assume that a good chunk of the 831,508 rides taken involved transferring at Metro Center. Although all of the elevators and escalators were temporarily shut down at the junction of the Red, Blue and Orange lines earlier this morning, don't blame all of the extra feet.
A Metro spokeswoman tells Express that the escalators and elevators worked according to plan. A fire alarm had gone off at Metro Center at 10:10 a.m. and, says Cathy Asato, the "system did exactly what is was designed to do. When a fire alarm sounds, the units are supposed to go out of service in an effort to keep people from coming into the station. As people don't go running into burning buildings, neither should they go into a Metrorail station if there were a fire."
It was a false alarm, and everything was back up and running in 30 minutes. So while Metro escalators get a bad rap, in this case, they were working when they weren't working. Despite what you might think, the extra feet, Metro says, do not place an extra burden on the moving stairways.
» "Smothered With Love" [WaPo]
» "Metro Records Second-Highest Ridership Day" [Free Ride/Express]
Photo by Michael Grass/Express
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Ironically, I had just finished reading the words, "Metro wants you to know that its trains and escalators are up to the task of handling the increased traffic..." in my Express when I stepped onto the platform at Metro Center and found a clot of bewildered riders near the escalators. Two of the three escalators were operating, but both were going up, so many of the less agile tourists with heavy luggage could not get down. When I pointed out the elevator, they shook their heads sadly and told me it wasn't working, either. Then I got to the lower platform, and I saw an elderly man in a wheelchair who had entered the elevator's open doors and was trying unsuccessfully to make it move. And of course, there was not a Metro official anywhere in sight to help with this mess.
As a commuter, I gave up long ago on the ideal that Metro's equipment should function reliably each and every day. But since they have all year to work on these issues, why can't they even get it right for a few key days out of the year, like peak cherry blossom week? Our nation's capital deserves to have a functional transit system, for the sake of both its residents and its visitors. The current system is an embarrassment to this city, and it literally makes me ashamed to walk by these poor folks who just want to get from place to place without a major hassle.
By Heather Friedman , Posted April 5, 2007 10:59 AM