Bear me for a second here, this is a two parter and the first reader submission! Witnessed by reader Sarah at the Broad Street Line's Broad-Lombard station. She writes:
no, there's not much of a story: it's a fire alarm connected to, uh, nothing, at the broad and lombard broad street line station. also, if you look closely, you'll see the alarm itself isn't exactly present in its entirety.
sorry it's in two parts--caught it with my cell phone camera, so i had to make do.
but yeah--this sure does make ya feel safe, huh?
Now, to be fair, it is possible that these alarms operate on batteries or there is a second power line running directly into the concrete column to which it is attached, but come on, REALLY?
12 comments:
Man, if that one plus the phone isn't a metaphor for half-ass, I don't know what is. That's a stone cold safety issue. Anyone at SEPTA listening?
I just found your flickr...and now this blog....and it'smy new favorite thing.
OH! I wish I still had the photo on my phone - A few weeks ago at (I believe) Walnut Locust, the fire alarm had a hand-written "OUT OF ORDER" sign taped over it.
Awesome.
Sorry to say, but this is not a fail at all. There's a few stations on the Subway that are being outfitted with all kinds of new equipment. You'll notice there's new LED displays, speakers, security cameras and yes, fire alarms. It's part of the whole SEPTA Smart Stations thing (google it). Lombard-South and Ellsworth-Federal are two of the stations that are part of this. So in a place that either didnt have fire alarms, or old crappy ones, they are being replaced with new ones. Yes, it does look new doesnt it. Of course the equipment takes some time to install, connect and get up and running. As for the conduit running on the outside of the column...I agree, that it's far from aesthetically pleasing and I'd prefer to see it buried in the column, but I'm sure there's budget issues. I'd rather have more new equipment at more stations that is installed ugly-like, rather than fewer stations with pretty setups. But overall the installation of a new fire alarm is far from fail.
Why is there no sign indicating that this is an "in-progress" installation right over the cover? Or have it taped over so people don't think it's a working fire alarm? Installing fire alarms and telling people they're not hooked up is FAIL.
Point taken. I have seen signs/boxes taped over fire alarms and cameras that say exactly that and I have seen those same signs taken down by passengers. I'll give the benefit of the doubt that they wanted to see what was behind them, took them down and never put them back up.
Agreed. SEPTAfail isn't just for FAILures by SEPTA, but by the idiots who ride it (myself sometimes included!)
Though I will agree that SEPTA could do a better job 'pimpin' the stuff thats in the works, so that the public is informed. Just wanted to dispel the myth on this one, bash the bad stuff (like the map circa 1980's at 69th St by the entrance to the El), not the good. :)
Hmmm...Anon, you have a lot of information about those boxes. Any chance you're in Public Relations for SEPTA?
hahaha--this is my submission. every time i see it (and i caught this about six weeks ago or so), i can't help but crack up. and then cry a little inside...
SIX WEEKS?! is it still like that?
Hey Frank...I ride the subway every day from Ellsworth-Federal. And watched new equipment going up every day for like 2 weeks. Once it was installed I noticed that it was covered up. The cameras were covered up by the box that the camera came in, with writing in magic marker that said something like "not connected" (I'll get the exact wording on Monday if there's any left) and that lasted about 2 days before they were taken down. First they were torn open, but still there duct taped to the device. Then they were removed altogether. I'm at my stop more than 10 times a week and just took notice. I also saw similar things at Lombard-South and Tasker-Morris, but stop at those far less frequently. Also noticed this on a few El stops.
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