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"Enter to Start"

Discussion relating to the past and present operations of the NYC Subway, PATH, and Staten Island Railway (SIRT).

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"Enter to Start"

 #131739  by F40
 
Who designed this little jingle above certain escalators in the Transit system? It sounds like someone is ready for a game.

Also, are these metal boards supposed to light up (along with "Do Not Enter")? And when were these installed? They look pretty old.

 #131806  by arrow
 
I'm not sure I've ever heard a jingle on the escalator. Where can I go to hear this?

 #131833  by F40
 
Well the jingle is figurative. I just thought "Enter to Start" sounded comical for the entrance to an escalator.

 #131855  by arrow
 
I still never saw or heard anything like that..maybe I'm just not paying attention.

 #131875  by F40
 
There is no real jingle. Just the metal boards that say "Enter to Start" and "Do not Enter" above the escalators. This can be seen at the Grand Central-42 St entrance (from the Main Concourse), at 74 St-Broadway IIRC, and a handful of other places which I can't recall. If a station has escalators, you have a good chance of finding this sign. Lex Av-53 St might be another place.

 #131878  by arrow
 
ok, I see what you're saying now.

Re: "Enter to Start"

 #132092  by Allan
 
F40 wrote:Who designed this little jingle above certain escalators in the Transit system? It sounds like someone is ready for a game.

Also, are these metal boards supposed to light up (along with "Do Not Enter")? And when were these installed? They look pretty old.
Those are left overs from when the sensors that detected movement were in use. On many escalators they would be "off" when no one was using them (in order to save money on electric and to cut down wear and tear on the machinery). Once someone passed under the motion sensor the escalator would start up and run for a peiod of time after which it would go into a stand-by mode. Problem was that many of those sensors wouldn't work or would break down so those escalators were just adjusted to be on all the time.

There are two at Pelham Bay Park which was installed back when the entire station building was rebuilt (in the late 1980's IIRC). At first the sensors worked fine but after a number of years they started to fail. Nowadays they leave the escalators on 24/7 which so far has caused breakdowns (the one from mezzanine to platform has been down for 2 weeks and counting).

 #132846  by F40
 
Couldn't the MTA just install the newer sensors found in common supermarkets? They seem to work well and not fail. Also, the sensors on the Acelas in the vestibule doors didn't seem to cause any problems since. Just some ideas.

 #132886  by drewh
 
You find many of these types of escalators throughout Europe.

I think it is more of a liability issue here in the states for not using them. Imagine people walking down an up escalator when someone at the bottom triggers the sensor.

 #133020  by Allan
 
F40 wrote:Couldn't the MTA just install the newer sensors found in common supermarkets? They seem to work well and not fail. Also, the sensors on the Acelas in the vestibule doors didn't seem to cause any problems since. Just some ideas.
Remember we are talking about the MTA. Just because it makes sense does not mean it will happen.

 #133050  by arrow
 
I'm not sure how much power an escalator used but it seems to me that with the amount of maintenance apparantly required to keep these things working and due to the safety issues that have already been pointed out, it seems to be easier to just leave them running all the time. Not to mention the wear on the escalator that is caused by turning it on.

 #133219  by F40
 
Remember we are talking about the MTA. Just because it makes sense does not mean it will happen.
I thought this was for NJT.

 #136027  by F40
 
On another note, how would the escalator 'know' that the last passenger to step off the escalator has indeed, stepped off and then shut off?

 #136264  by drewh
 
The ones I have seen in France, seem to reset a timer every time someone enters the escalator. They shut off about a minute after the time it takes anyone to ride the length of it.
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