Why do metro escalators often break down?
The Palais de Justice metro station reopened a few days ago. It was completely closed as part of the plan to replace all the metro line B escalators with new models. A renovation that should make recurring breakdowns rarer.
Toulouse residents accustomed to using the metro have probably noticed the recurring breakdowns that used the escalators in the stations. To deal with this problem, “it is time to change them”, says Jean-Michel Lattes, president of Tisseo Local authorities and Tisséo Ingénierie. “We have to replace them every 30 years. But faced with regular breakdowns on metro line B, we wanted to anticipate the renovation”.
As a reminder, this work began in November 2021, by the terminus of line B, Ramonville, then by the Minimes station in February 2022. That of the Courthouse has just reopened. The work should be completed in 2026 because it takes between 3 to 4 months of intervention per station. In total, 77 escalators will be replaced. Overall budget: 22.2 million euros.
Tisséo in court with the installer of the escalators
Flavien Rousseau, project manager of Tisséo Collectivités for this operation, assures that “the recurring breakdowns on the devices are the consequence of a design defect, but also of an insufficiency of the structure of the device itself and of “poor quality of the various organs. “It was really a problem of quality and sizing. We try not to make the same mistake”.
Jean-Michel Lattes supports: “The recurring breakdowns for line B are the consequences of” faulty equipment supplied by the company with which Tisséo worked more than 20 years ago. This is a well-known company in the Marseille region which had decided to create an escalator subsidiary, with their own products. They have won markets throughout France, except that here, as elsewhere, it turned out that these escalators were deficient. We have been on trial against them for five years. In addition, the subsidiary has been closed and the company no longer exists. It’s long and a bit complicated…”. The Journal Toulousain tried to reach the manager of the company in question, in vain. From now on, Tisséo works with a company which takes all responsibility in the event of faulty equipment.
Line A facilities also renovated
With the renovation of the new escalators, Flavien Rousseau hopes that there will be “no more breakdowns”. “There are incivilities, presses on the emergency button. So the device shuts down for reasons beyond our control. From now on, we are doing everything to make everything work well”. “We have a supervision system that will inform the maintenance teams of the breakdown in real time, with an intervention in 45 minutes at most”, specifies the head of the Tisséo community projects.
Once the line B escalators have been replaced, Tisséo intends to carry out the renovation of the escalators on line A. “There, there are fewer problems with breakdowns since the escalators are of better quality, more robust”, specifies Flavien Rousseau. “The work will last two years in the Jean-Jaurès station, divided into ten phases so as not to close”. 200,000 people pass through this station every day.
Liliana Brel