T extends elevator and escalator pact despite complaints about contractor

The MBTA board of directors reluctantly approved a five-month, $3.5 million contract extension yesterday with the company responsible for maintaining the T's elevators and escalators, less than a day after a Watertown woman was injured after being trapped on an MBTA escalator at Harvard Square and several weeks after a man was choked to death on an escalator at Porter Square.

Though T officials said there were no defects on the escalators, the transit agency has had a series of major malfunctions of its elevators and escalators, all of which are maintained by Kone Inc., whose headquarters are in Illinois.

The board said it had no choice but to extend its contract with Kone after two recent bids on a new contract proved too expensive. But the board threatened sanctions against Kone or a ban from bidding on future contracts because of inadequate service.

''We're faced with a difficult challenge," said Anne Herzenberg, chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. ''I would not say performance has been good at this time. . . . I would have to blame the contractor, mostly. . . . We clearly need to push harder to get them to perform."

Herzenberg said the T has fined Kone $567,000 for failures to perform routine maintenance. She said Kone officials have told her that because of the fines, the company was not making any profit on its current five-year contract with the T. The contract increased from $12 million to $17 million after new elevators and escalators were added to the transit system.

''We're not pleased," said Transportation Secretary Daniel A. Grabauskas, who chairs the MBTA board. ''Maybe they can make a little less."

But Mike Lubben, the company's vice president, insisted: ''Kone's record of maintaining this aging system is strong. Escalators remain among the safest modes of transportation in the world. When used properly, MBTA's escalators remain very safe."

Hayley Niles, 24, was injured at about 12:35 a.m. yesterday after tripping as she headed up an escalator at the Harvard Square stop on the Red Line. After Niles fell, a piece of her clothing snagged in the escalator's comb plate and pulled her down, T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

She was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital with a cut on her shoulder and was released later yesterday.

Pesaturo said state safety inspectors investigated and determined there were no mechanical defects in the escalator, which was last inspected Feb. 28.

On Feb 21, Francisco Portillo, a 34-year-old prep cook from El Salvador, was strangled after his hood became caught in the comb plate of an escalator at Porter Square station on the Red Line. An investigation determined that Portillo was sitting or lying down when his hood was caught.

Several members of the T's access advisory committee, all of them disabled, came to the T board meeting to protest and press for change.

''The service has been inexcusable," said committee member James Oliver.

Oliver cited an MBTA incident report from Feb. 8 after an unidentified man had his electric wheelchair crushed by an elevator at Harvard Square station when the elevator began going up, its doors open the entire time, as he was getting in. The wheelchair was found wedged between the elevator floor and the top of the elevator's door frame. Oliver was found unhurt on the floor of the elevator.

Kone was awarded the extension after the T received two bids on a new contract. T officials said the contract, which was proposed at $18 million for the next five years, drew bids of $32 million from Kone and $47 million from an unnamed company.

Globe correspondent Justin Aucoin contributed to this report. Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.