Understand that I don’t dislike Amtrak. But I am angry at them right now.
I recently resumed commuting into Penn Station NYC daily on LIRR (also known as the Long Island H-ll Road among other names). Each day I exit Penn through Amtrak’s 7th Ave exit, normally up a long escalator ride to ground level where I walk a bit to catch a bus. Weeks ago the UP escalator died - with a load of passengers. That was after a number of days where it had problems. Finally Amtrak took it out of service. Now you’d think, given no alternative other then steps close by, that they’d reverse the DOWN escalator. But no, they wouldn’t. Nor are they doing repairs as far as I can tell. I contacted Amtrak a few different ways to beg them to reverse the DOWN to go UP. That after I watched someone on crutches struggle up the long staircase.
Now they’ve posted a sign telling the handicapped to walk a block south inside the station to a NJT escalator. Mind you, if one is too weak to make it up the steps, I’m guessing hiking a block south through Penn and then back north on 7th won’t do too well.
I’d love to know what the station manager is thinking!
I agree with you that this neglect is rather outrageous and certainly customer hostile. Amtrak claims to pride itself on serving customers with disabilities. But there seems to be a real at New York Penn Station. However, I do wonder if there is an elevator close to the 7th Avenue exit.
If there is no elevator you can use I hope this post is only your beginning of writing letters asking that the elevator be repaired.
Elevators between the street and the station are located at the main entrances on 7th Avenue, on 34th Street, and on the Service Drive (closed to vehicles).
Elevators to tracks 1-12 are located at the Exit Concourse and the NJ Transit Concourse.
Elevators to tracks 13-21 are located at the Central Concourse.
I’m trying to connect your comments to what I wrote about. I didn’t say a thing about track access, nor about 34th Street or the nearly useless service drive. I wrote about the main 7th Ave entrance / exit to Penn from the Amtrak level at 32nd Street. There is no nearby alternative to the broken escalator (unless the Amtrak manager gets off his behind and reverses the down one). All other exits and entraces are useless to someone who needs to exit at that spot, to, for instance, connect with the Q32 or M4 busses half a block East on 32nd Street. The NJ Transit exit is to far away for 1. someone in a hurry, and 2. for someone handicapped given that it’s a block south at 31st Street - unless, of course, you want to exit at 31st.
What got me angriest at this ‘manager’ was watching someone working very hard to climb the stairs on crutches. And that kind of ignores all the senior citizens and others who have great difficulty climbing such a long, steep staircase. It’s also very clear that the only ‘repair’ is putting up an old sign saying that it is being repaired. Even the New York City Transit Authority is required to put up a notice with details on the timing of the repair.
I’m not aware of any nearby elevator to the street. The closest alternative I’m aware of is a block south at 31st Street, way out of the way for someone heading to the NorthEast, or heading to the bus stop a half block east on 32nd.
FYI, I wrote to Amtrak on their web site. I called 800 USA Rail. I posted on Facebook’s Amtrak page. I got on here after I saw the little sign at Penn telling passengers to go to another exit a block away. I’m not anti Amtrak; I really am a supporter. But they have a real customer service problem here. It seems obvious that this manager is in the wrong line of work. Hey, even LIRR, which I consider the worst commuter railroad in the country, has learned to not ignore problems like this.
Has anyone contacted Boardman directly on this? He may well fire the station manager. Or the manager of station maintenance system wide who was contacted by the station manager.
Sorry, but I thought the maps would provide you the answer as well as my comment:
Accessibility
Elevators between the street and the station are located at the main entrances on 7th Avenue, on 34th Street, and on the Service Drive (closed to vehicles).
Elevators are an alternative. However, in large older stations they can be hard to find and are not always well marked. At the same time retrofitting elevators in older existing structures also has its problems.
But it is hard to understand why an escalator should be shut down for weeks. Amtrak well knows that an escalator is needed there and it is often crowded with people. It needs to be repaired and put into service.
What makes the problem even more absurd is that there is a down escalator there that does work, and it ought to be able to be run UP instead of down until the other escalator is repaired. And Amtrak should be considering adding a 3rd escalator there due to the very high volume of people at that entrance.
I’m just hoping that something I do gets the attention of Amtrak management to do something about the problem and the personnel at Penn who clearly don’t get upset seeing someone hobbling up the stairs on crutches or trying to pull themselves up the steps while risking a heart attack. Or in my case, an asthma attack.
I believe a newspaper editorial was done on this escalator or some other Amtrak station escalator in the Northeast and there were some points raised in the editorial:
Factors to consider that are out of Amtrak’s hands:
Age of the escalator.
If the escalator repair service stocks the spare parts or has to order them.
It can take up to 6-8 weeks to fix some types of escalators when they break down. Of course, Amtrak could replace it with a newer model and resolve the spare parts issue but that costs money as well. Is the money in the Station Managers budget or is the budget bare bones?
Very true. These escalators have likely long seen better days. And if they were the product of a low bid installation, parts are likely to be far and few between. And who knows if they have money to replace the bad one. SO, first priority would be to - oh yes, to switch the DOWN one to up, since UP is needed a lot more then down. Second, put out a sign that says that the escalator is likely to be out of service for X months while they do a scavenger hunt for parts. At least be smart, and honest. And so far whoever it is has done neither, IMHO.
You make a very good point. Apart from the military, the U. S. Government buys just about everything from the lowest bidder. Would any of us, if we need something, always buy the absolutely cheapest thing we could find? I doubt that. But that is what our government does. And we get what the government pays for.
I am glad to see this topic being addressed in this forum.
I, too, marvel at Penn Station’s decrepit and often-broken escalators. My usual escalators there are the ones leading to the 8th & 33rd entrance, though I often use the 8th & 31st set. Almost without exception one of either set is out of service. So I can completely agree with the earlier comments about the tremendous inconvenience and discourtesy to the traveling (and paying) public when escalators are broken down.
Being a railfan and thinking I know who to contact that can actually help, I have at least twice stopped into the Station Master’s Office near the 8th & 33rd entrance. No one in that office wants to even look up, let alone handle a complaint about a broken escalator. I have yet to meet the Station Master, or anyone in his office who can help; the best these employees can offer is a bored look as I recite briefly my unhappiness at the always-broken escalator. The last time I did so, an employee of the Station Master’s Office suggested I write to a fellow in Washington who’s in charge of Amtrak’s East Coast facilities and plant. Another person in this office asked me What did I expect from such heavily-used escalators? When I mentioned that Macy’s had heavily-used escalators that all worked, she simply stared at me. Couple that attitude with the bloody-mindlessness of not reversing down escalators when needed, and you can see what travelers and do-gooders like me are up against.
One can rationally argue than Amtrak dislikes Penn Station as much, if not more, than we travelers do. Penn Station is a reproach to
Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that the station masters office could care less. That became apparent from what they did in this case. Maybe Amtrak management hates Penn, but I’m hoping to embarras them into getting their act together. Penn is awful, and a full rebuild is needed, but the Post Office building is too far out of the way to be even slightly useful except for a large food court. There are things that can be done even with MSG above.
There are spots where new escalators are needed. Some where they are worn out. If the old Gimbles passage could be reopened and improved, that would take pressure off this one entrance - except that won’t happen now because the Pennsylvania Hotel isn’t being torn down anytime soon.
In the meantime, the station could probably use a completely new station master team!
LIRR may even send out hourly emails when an escalator is broken. And they NOW actually try to fix them when they break. I hear I lot of nasty comments about their attorney President but when she hears of safety problems she is all over them. You email her a problem and she works on it. Amtrak doesn’t seem to have or want a way to hear about problems. Which is really sad.
I offer a few observations about filing complaints. These are based on my own experience and I would appreciate hearing from others about the issue.
Think about whether or not you really want to invest the time and energy needed in complaining. Complaints usually require follow up and may require research. To have a hope of success you have to be willing to work on them long after the initial frustration is gone. And be realistic. Often you will accomplish nothing beyond expressing your opinion. But there is a real possibility of getting satisfaction.
If public service agencies such as Amtrak (or any other transportation agency or company) come prepared. Invest in a notebook and pen and carry it with you. When you see something that needs fixing and causes a problem write it down with date, time, place and all of the details you can think of.
Start at the lowest responsible level first. The suggestion on this thread about calling in person at the station master’s office is excellent. And add to your notebook the response you received. It it is reasonable get names but you cannot always do that. However, having date, time and place can make it pretty clear who spoke with you.
Try, really try not to be belligerent or even difficult no matter how justified that may be. First of all,anger gets in the way of communication. Second, the natural response of whoever you speak to is to be defensive. Just be patient and persist until you have gone as far as you can with that individual.
If you get nowhere (as the complainer here did) that becomes additional useful information. As you go up the ladder you recite your efforts to solve this at a lower level and the response to those efforts. People in charge can often give all kinds of reasons for delays to repairing broken equipment and, even
I just want to say thanks for your posts here and your effort. You can see my own response in the above post. I pass through New York Penn Station occasionally–not very often, these days–but when I do I shall be aware of the escalators. And, because I do believe in Amtrak and want it to continue, if they don’t work I will complain and follow up.