Subscribe to RSSIt’s That Lightbulb Time Again!
Here we go again! The annual joke is back!
Back in October I wrote:
How long does it take to change a…
A Britomart escalator was out of action last week when Britomart was clogged with more traffic because 50% more people were using trains during the bus industrial dispute.It’s still out of action.
Oddly it’s officially “closed for maintenance” but I have yet to see any tradesman / worker near it as if they are maintaining or fixing it.
It took weeks and weeks and weeks….
Today what we do we find?
And still no repair people!
7 Comments
Quick! Lets investigate a PPP scheme for escalator maintenance and operation.
I think we should sell off the escalators to private operators. Then we can form a steering group made up of all interested parties - ARC and the seven existing councils and the future supercity, the transition agency, ARTA *and* the new transport agency, NZTA, and the Truckies Union, however we must be careful not to involve anyone who actually uses the escalators.
The steering group can then form policy on escalator maintenance, and every time one of the group notices when an escalator breaks down (it can take a while because nobody on the group uses them), propose at the next monthly meeting that the private operator the escalator was sold to should be asked to quote for a fix.
At the monthly meeting following that one, ratify that we accept the quote, but defer deciding on whether to go ahead with the fix til the second following monthly meeting (please note the steering group does not on any month with a J or an R in its name).
It’d be so much more streamlined…
Also, on any uneven months, any maintenance quotes are declined, to ensure economical use of limited taxpayer funds, and encourage active modes (stairs).
I confidently predict less than one week.
Ah, you see that’s the ‘nice’ thing about PPP contracts. The beneficial ‘owner’ would be responsible contractually for maintenance, to be paid for by the ‘user’, ie the taxpayer. Such maintenance is subject to a set fee, hence the £50 lightbulb in UK PPP schools. And, no, contractually, the schools are unable to change the lightbulb themselves. And I quite agree with Andrew’s proposal for a steering group for the escalators except that I’d suggest that in terms of NAct best practice (the Hide/Joyce procedure per ATA) it wouldn’t be the Truckies Union but rather those nice people from the Road Transport Forum.
“I confidently predict less than one week.”
Radical, Ian. Not without performance bonus, you won’t
A week later it still isn’t fixed. This morning there were guys working on it but by the afternoon it was looking even less like an escalator with no sign of workmen.