Montreal senior calls for STM to fix city's broken Metro escalators, elevators

Arup Dutta is a regular on the Montreal Metro. He and his wife, both seniors in their 70s, ride the train from Côte-Vertu station to get downtown — but getting up and down to the train platforms when the escalators and elevators are out of order has left him frustrated with what he calls a subway system in disrepair.

A retired engineer, Dutta built a career fixing things. Now, he is calling on the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to get to work on repairing escalators and elevators across the transit network so seniors and people with reduced mobility can get around without headaches and strain.

Last weekend, he and his wife traveled to Côte-Vertu station only to find a broken escalator, a common sight in the last few years, an almost daily occurrence, he said. 

"When we arrived at Mont-Royal station we got a shock. The escalator going up was not working, and then we looked at each other, my wife and I... Now that for me is completely unacceptable." said Dutta.

While Dutta says he and his wife are physically fit, arriving at the Metro to find a broken escalator or elevator — if the station has one — may be an obstacle for other seniors and people with reduced mobility.

In an email to CBC, the STM said the vast majority of its elevators and escalators are fully functional, and it has a maintenance crew dedicated to making repairs as needed, including major overhauls on two escalators.

It said both its stations and escalators are several decades old, meaning replacing escalator parts and installing elevators are major technical challenges.

As part of its accessibility program launched in 2016, the STM said it currently has 26 stations considered accessible and plans to make four more stations accessible by 2025.

Sarah Doyon, the executive director of accessible transit advocacy group Trajectoire Québec, said the STM welcomes increased funding for elevators and escalators. The growing number of accessible Metro stations in the city is good news, she said, but having 30 out of 68 stations accessible — fewer than half — is not good enough. 

"We really have to make sure that the 68 stations end up being fully accessible," she said.

Doyon also said the transit agency needs to do a better job of communicating closures. 

The STM recently created an online page to inform users of broken elevators and escalators, but Doyon was not aware of it until CBC contacted her. She said she suspects few Montrealers are aware of the new page.