University says constant repairs are a must to maintain service
Escalators in the Hall building create issues for students with limited mobility when they’re out of order.
“Honestly, it sucks,” said journalism student Nick Lariviere, who has cerebral palsy. He said anyone can be impacted by an out of order escalator. “It can get really hard to navigate that building for anyone, let alone people with mobility issues.”
University Spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr noted that in 2012, all elevators and escalators in the Hall building were replaced to increase efficiency. “We have seen a dramatic decline in comments about escalator/elevator downtime,” said Barr.
According to Barr, escalators in the building are also required to undergo a certain amount of daily, monthly and yearly repairs in order to meet safety standards and industry regulations. Barr said some of the unscheduled interruptions are often the result of vandalism. “If interruptions do occur outside of regular scheduled maintenance operations, Concordia has onsite certified technicians to expedite repair work,” said Barr. “In instances of unscheduled downtime, communications are issued to building stakeholders and the internal Concordia community.”
The unscheduled downtime, however, can create a lot of traffic throughout the building, forcing students to use the elevators and stairwells. “I can use the stairs especially since I’ve never had a class above three floors from the ground floor there, but for some people it’s a lot of work going up those stairs,” said Lariviere.
Interruptions can also make students late for class. “My class is on the 10th floor, so I had to run up the escalators that weren’t even working. It made me a few minutes late in the end,” said English and creative writing student Bryony Hoare.
“I’d rather walk up stairs than up another broken escalator,” said Lariviere. He finds the escalator steps harder to walk up. “I think due to my right leg, the wider steps are harder on my knee.”
Photo by Mackenzie Lad.