Workers fixing an escalator at 34 St - Herald Sq on 9/6/2006.
Today’s amNY newspaper reports that subway contractor Fujitec America botched the $36 million installation of new escalators in the Herald Square subway station. It’s gotten so bad, that this weekend, 5 of the 12 escalators were out of service. Why is this so complicated???
The MTA spent $36 million last year to overhaul the Herald Square escalators. But the contractor, Fujitec America, didn’t install the equipment correctly and must make mechanical adjustments, New York City Transit officials said.
Throughout the subway system, the average number of failures on MTA-operated escalators jumped 46 percent in the last quarter of 2008 compared to 2006, according to the latest Transit reports.
“We respond as quickly as possible in house,” said Transit President Howard Roberts during a recent MTA board meeting. “But we have little leverage with our current contracts to … get warranty repairs made.”
Fujitec America could not be reached for comment Sunday.
What’s wrong with you people, please look into your stories before you publish stories like this, the minute Fujitec finished the installation of these escalators the MTA took over the service and maintenance, the reason these units are constantly down is because the people from the MTA servicing these units are not trained personal and have no CLUE what they are doing. The MTA should have kept trained personal from Fujitec on the job which would guaranty these shut downs wouldn’t occur.
The escalators at 34th never work, and it’s uncomfortable having to go up & down these steep lengths.
I’m glad you wrote about this and hopefully the problems will be resolved soon [by whoever is responsible for the maintanence.]
Garry, what is your source on the responsibility of maintanence of the escalators? I’m sure this blog is reporting with the latest info they have received from AMNY.