T chief promises oversight on repairs

On his first day on the job, the T's new general manager, Daniel Grabauskas, said yesterday that he will hire a point person, a director of vertical transportation, to fix and oversee chronic problems with station elevators and escalators, and vowed to speed repairs at three key stations.

Calling the number of broken-down elevators and escalators in the transit system ''a disgrace," Grabauskas also assigned at least two Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority employees to monitor current repairs made by the T's outgoing contractor, KONE Inc.

Ten percent of the T's 143 elevators and 167 escalators were out of service yesterday.

''We've spent tens of millions of dollars to upgrade stations to make the system accessible, and we have people out there that depend on our service and they can't get in," Grabauskas said. ''If you think of elevators and escalators as one mode of transportation that we deliver, and if 10 percent of our transportation wasn't working on any given day, there would be a hue and cry . . . After spending all this money, I have a feeling that people have a right to be pretty upset."

Elevators and escalators at three stations -- Porter Square, Harvard Square, and Park Street -- are to be fast-tracked for repairs under the plan. The jobs could take a year to complete, he said.

''I wish 'fast-tracked' meant four weeks," he said, ''but this is going to be really noticed."

Grabauskas said he also plans to meet with either a local or national representative from KONE, an Illinois-based company, to discuss its past work. KONE, which the T fined $567,000 during its previous five-year contract for failing to perform routine maintenance, was awarded a $3.5 million extension through August after the T received two bids on a new five-year contract that were double what the authority had budgeted.

Asked whether he is considering whether to withhold payment on the contract extension, Grabauskas said: ''Everything is a possibility. We're an unhappy customer, and our customers are unhappy."

The number of broken or out-of-service escalators and elevators at MBTA stations hit a five-year high at the start of the year and prompted the Federal Transit Administration to begin monitoring the problem, officials said last month.

The federal agency helps enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act and has the authority to withhold federal transit money if the situation does not improve.

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.