I have no problems taking elevators. I’ve lived in, worked in and visited tall buildings for much of my life, but I do know people suffering from fear of elevators. A few months ago, when I exited the IRT at the Clark St. station for the first time in my life, I finally understood this fear of elevators.
The Clark St. station is the first stop in Brooklyn on the 2 and the 3. This station — which is basically the end of the tunnel under the East River — is 100 feet underground, and the only way to get from the trains to the surface is via a cattle car of an elevator that is enough to drive anyone to walk up any distance. It is, in a word, terrifying, and I would rather walk from the Borough Hall stop than ever use that elevator again.
Today, I found out this fear is not without basis in reality. The Clark St. elevators fail at a pace greater than once every other day, according to reports released on Monday. But it gets better, as The Sun’s Annie Karni reports:
Over the past two years, the three elevators at Clark Street have broken down almost 400 times, averaging a pace of almost one breakdown every other day. Riders have been trapped inside the elevators more than 20 times. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s maintenance crews have been sent out multiple times in single days to repair the same elevator, and temperatures inside the elevators have risen to 100 degrees…
The only alternative to waiting is an 80-foot climb up a steep staircase used only in emergencies — and perhaps by mountaineers and marathoners in training. Over the past two years, the transit authority listed fuses blown due to high temperatures, brake failures, worn-out molding, and general “door problems” as the most common causes of the chronic breakdowns, according to documents obtained by The New York Sun.
The story, of course, gets better. First, the MTA is often loathe to send out repairmen to the elevators because the workers need to be paid $41 an hour for an overtime accrued while making difficult repairs. Furthermore, the MTA won’t send its own crews out to fix new elevators because the Authority doesn’t want to risk voided the warranty.
This elevator debacle is not a new problem for those who rely on Clark St. The old elevators — replaced in 2000 at a cost of $3.5 million — often broke down, and no one knew how to fix them because they were constructed out of leftover parts for a World War II aircraft. A lack of parts still plagues this station, and John Liu, head of the City Council’s transportation committee summed it best.
“The most frequent excuse for broken elevators is a lack of parts,” Liu said. “What we need are Fords for elevators, and it seems as if they give us Maseratis. One has to question how these contracts are given out.”
That they do, John. That they do.
Photo of the Union Square elevator, seemingly out of service forever, courtesy of flickr user fmsparis.