Government success: new escalator for Metro

Ever use the Metro system in Washington, DC? It's operated by the government agency Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and has a lot of problems. We mean a lot. Seriously, a ton.

But Tuesday DC residents got a glimpse of what a government-operated transit-system success story looks like. The Washington Examiner reports:

Commuters at the Foggy Bottom Metro station got to ride on a clean new escalator after enduring months of construction that forced many to wait in long lines only to climb the stalled stairs."This is awesome," Jennifer Bretsch yelled out, raising her arms in the air, as she rode up Monday morning.

"It's been a nightmare," she said. "You think you're going to get to work at a certain time. More often than not, though, they're down and there's a backlog of people."

The transit agency has been working on the project since January and finished the work on the new Schindler brand escalator Sunday afternoon. It met its first full test of commuters on Monday morning.

The report goes on to say that WMATA has plans to replace 588 other escalators. With problems like the one in the video below a regular occurrence, six months time to replace each escalator seems reasonable, right?

Video: L'Enfant Plaza Escalator Malfunction in DC: MyFoxDC.com