MEDIA ADVISORY: Metro and Montgomery County officials to mark completion of Bethesda Metro Escalator Replacement Project

Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld, Montgomery County officials and business leaders will mark the completion of a major escalator replacement project at Bethesda Station on Wednesday, March 22.

Since late 2014, Metro and its contractor, KONE, have replaced all five escalators inside Bethesda Station, including the three “long” escalators -- the second longest in the Western Hemisphere -- that descend approximately ten stories from the street to the station’s mezzanine.

The new escalators are safer and more reliable than the older units they replaced. As a result of this and other escalator replacement projects, Metro’s overall escalator availability score is now at the highest level in six years (93.5% in CY2016). 

The Bethesda project included demolition and removal of the old escalators, which had been in service for more than 30 years, design and installation of the new escalators, along with construction of a new set of stairs between the platform and mezzanine to improve customer flow. Metro has invested more than $8 million toward new escalator equipment at the station.

WHO:
Paul J. Wiedefeld, Metro General Manager/CEO
Roger Berliner, President, Montgomery County Council
Jane Fairweather, Chair, The Greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce Metro Improvement Task Force

WHEN:
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Bethesda Metro Station (Mezzanine Level)
7450 Wisconsin Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814