Metro to Inspect All 588 Escalators

Following a couple of escalator mishaps in the past week, Metro has decided to inspect all of the escalators in the rail system, Tom Sherwood reported.

An escalator at the L'Enfant Metro Station sped up Saturday, causing a pileup of people at the bottom and injuring several. Metro was setting a ridership record that day thanks to rallies on the Mall by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when the weight of the crowd caused the escalator motors to shut down. The brakes then failed, causing the escalator to speed up for 18 seconds until a safety sensor shut it down.

An unconfirmed similar incident at the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro Station Wednesday night after the Washington Capitals game also is under investigation.

There are 588 escalators in the Metro system. Inspectors will spend the next few days checking on them.

Click here for a list of escalator outages.


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