Anybody care to tell me what the City or Disability Community are doing
about this--if anything?
ISM
The Philadelphia Daily News, May 3, 1999
Four new stainless-steel and tile Frankford Elevated Line stations
representing a $34 million SEPTA investment have broken-down elevators and
dead escalators.
Three of the stations - Margaret-Orthodox, York-Dauphin and Girard - have
been totally rebuilt. Work on a fourth, Erie-Torresdale, will be completed
within a year, said SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker.
The broken escalators and elevators are all fairly new. One new elevator has
never worked because it floods with rainwater. An escalator broke soon after
it was installed because workers hosed down pigeon droppings and soaked the
electrical components, sources told Phantom Rider.
The fact that SEPTA can't keep the new lifts working seems to indicate the
transit authority isn't as sensitive as Phantom Rider to its elderly and
disabled straphangers.
The broken escalators and elevators also seem to put SEPTA in violation of
the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that train stops
be accessible to all commuters. It's not clear whether anyone will try to
enforce that law.
The broken El lifts are the latest Phantom-Rider findings on the state of
escalator and elevator disrepair at SEPTA subway and elevated train
stations.
Last week, Phantom reported finding 10 of the 14 Broad Street Subway
escalators were broken. An escalator at City Hall station has been broken
more than two years.
Phantom Rider also has received tips about SEPTA escalators loafing on the
job at Market-Frankford Line stations in West Philadelphia. They'll get the
Phantom-Rider inspection for future reports.
Phantom has been trying for weeks to get SEPTA General Manager Jack Leary to
explain the sorry state of lifts that refuse to budge and moving stairways
that don't move. So far, no comment.
One of the broken El elevators is at the York-Dauphin station, which got an
$8 million facelift that was finished in 1997.
The elevator has never worked. Not one day.
The entrance to the street-level elevator is barred by a steel door with a
wire-mesh face and locks. Commuters are greeted by a notice in two
languages - "elevator broken" and "esta roto."
"This York-Dauphin elevator has been down for three years. The station
platform is slanted, causing rain water to to spill into the shaft. That
causes the wires to short-out," a source from SEPTA management told Phantom
Rider.
"That elevator will sit for years more, as SEPTA and the contractor battle
in court, blaming one another for this mess," the source added.
SEPTA sued the contractor soon after the station was completed and the water
damage was discovered. That lawsuit is dragging through the courts while
straphangers must drag themselves up the stairs.
An elderly man struggling up the station's 50 steps one day last week didn't
care who was at fault.
"Whoever gets it back on, I don't care," he told the Phantom. "Just get it
working for the people."
At the Erie-Torresdale station, the comatose escalator is fenced off by
steel grillwork and covered by a blue shroud stained with pigeon droppings.
Elderly and disabled commuters must climb 39 hefty steps for trains.
"SEPTA spends millions for a new Erie-Torresdale station, but the escalator
doesn't work. Ridiculous!," snorted Virginia Tibbits, a former jogger who
suffers shin-split pain from her running days.
She was in Frankford the other day to visit an old high school friend
confined at home with a terminal illness. It's a weekly visit Tibbits
normally makes by car.
"But it was such a nice day, I thought why not give SEPTA a try? Next time,
I'll ask my neighbor to drive me," Tibbits told the Phantom.
SEPTA says the escalator will be turned on when the station's $10 million
facelift is finished, sometime next year.
A Market-Frankford Line worker told Phantom a different story.
"The escalator doesn't work because after it was installed, it became soiled
with pigeon droppings. Then attempts to wash the bird dung away shorted out
the escalator," said the source.
SEPTA spokesman Whitaker vigorously denied this scenario.
At the Margaret-Orthodox station, which received an $8 million makeover in
1987, the escalator is blocked by yellow security tape, forcing disabled
commuters like Brenda Johnson to hike up 38 steps to get to the train.
"I have a bad back and bad knees and will probably use this cane for the
rest of my life," she told Phantom Rider, tapping on the aluminum stick
always by her side.
"I'm here from Wayne Junction a couple times a week. It's walk up, then
rest. Walk up, then rest. Walk up again to finally rest at the top," said
the 51-year-old Johnson.
SEPTA says the escalator went out of service with electrical problems on
April 19. SEPTA has promised to turn it back on by the end of the week.
"Don't believe 'em, Phantom Rider. This is a coin-toss escalator that's been
out of service every-other day for the past year," said commuter Jim Childs
of Northeast Philadelphia.
At Girard station, the street-level elevator entry is blocked by a steel
grate door like the one at York-Dauphin.
But the only way you know for sure it's broken is when it dawns on you that
the car doesn't come when you press the button to summon it.
Commuters have to summon up their strength for the rugged climb up Girard
Station's 42 steps, broken by four landings.
But not all of them have the stamina, said Carnita McCory of North
Philadelphia.
"My knees are in bad shape, but when I ask the workers to start up the
Girard Station elevator, they begin joking on the side," said McCory.
When the steel gate that bars entry to the elevator car came down in April,
McCory switched to riding the Route 15 trolley car.
"It makes for a longer day, the trolley does. But those steps for me are an
impossible climb," she said. SEPTA says the Girard station elevator
shorted-out two weeks ago. The transit authority claims it's looking for a
repairman to get it back on line.
Nobody from SEPTA would predict when the elevator will be back in the
business of providing uplifting experiences for its straphangers.
© 1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
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