The Washington, D.C., Metro has more escalators than any other transit system in North America. That would be a big deal if they weren’t broken all the time. According to the Washington Post, Metro’s escalator reliability dipped from 93.7 percent in 2007 to 90.5 percent in 2009 — and that’s probably a generous figure.
So why do Metro’s escalators fail so often? A June audit showed that what’s really failing the nation’s capital is Metro management, whose "pick" system rewards lazy laborers.
