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WMATA Pilots Course 209: Escalator Specific-Electrical Systems as Part of Transit EL/ES Consortium

Posted February 2015

On January 23, Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority piloted Course 209: Escalator Specific - Electrical Systems. This course was developed by the Transit Elevator Escalator Training Consortium to provide participants with a basic knowledge of the electrical power distribution systems within a modern escalator. After a presentation and class discussion using Consortium materials, participants applied information from the course to real world examples of failures on transit escalators using an escalator simulator to troubleshoot faults and a LabVolt trainer to troubleshoot a variable frequency drive.  Information collected through the pilot observation and review will be used to make minor edits to improve this course, including the possible addition of hands-on instructional strategies and activities as well as assessment refinement. WMATA instructors also demonstrated further use and extension of the idea of the Spiral Curriculum as advanced by Jerome Bruner as they used the current content to re-visit earlier courses introducing basic PLC concepts while also beginning to prepare for the later course on PLC Programming.  Overall, participants were very excited to be involved in the piloting and enjoyed the course thoroughly.

For more information on the Transit Elevator/Escalator Training Consortium, contact Project Manager Jim Kinahan.