How we count.

What “Updated” means

How we count

The time next to Updated is when the station picture on this site last changed — which elevators or escalators are out, and the access marks that follow. We ask each agency on our own about every minute; that minute is shared for every visitor. Refresh only reloads the snapshot we already have — it does not ask the agency again. If nothing in the picture changed, the Updated time stays put. An agency can be later than that, and an elevator can fail after you look. A short miss does not raise a warning; if we have not heard back for about an hour, the page says so and keeps the last good read. If a feed does not answer and there is nothing to show, the station is unavailable. That is not written as all-clear.

The marks

How we count

No working elevators means every elevator we can count at that station is out. Partial elevator outage means at least one is out, and at least one is still listed as running. A remaining elevator may not serve the entrance you need. Not wheelchair accessible means the station was not given a step-free path, not that a working elevator just failed.

Those three sentences require a total. A city that only says “an elevator is out” cannot be drawn as all-out, and cannot be drawn as “2 of 3 running.” That mark is Elevator outage. It does not say how many remain. We do not invent the missing number.

DC Metro

Source

Outages come from WMATA’s public elevator and escalator incidents. The station list comes from WMATA’s rail stations. The totals — how many elevators and escalators a station has, and how many are down — are read from WMATA’s own status page, which already states them. If that page cannot be read, a saved copy of those totals is used. We do not fill a missing total ourselves.

How we count

Running elevators are the total minus the elevators WMATA lists as down. If every counted elevator is out, the station is no working elevators. If some remain, it is a partial outage. WMATA does not say which entrance the remaining elevator serves, so a partial outage is not treated as a clear wheelchair path. A station listed with no elevator is not wheelchair accessible.

Escalators use the same source and the same subtraction. An escalator can be down while an elevator still runs. That station is not drawn as closed.

Boston T

Source

Elevators and escalators come from the MBTA’s public facility list, attached to subway stations. Outages come from elevator-closure and escalator-closure alerts that are active now. Whether a station allows wheelchair boarding is a separate MBTA field, not something we infer from the elevator count. See the official elevator page. Data provided by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).

How we count

The running count is facilities minus active closures. If the alert does not name a facility we can match, that closure is not added to a station.

Zero elevators is not automatically “not wheelchair accessible.” A surface stop can be step-free with no elevator. That station says accessible, no elevator. A station with no elevator and no wheelchair boarding is not wheelchair accessible. If some elevators remain, the map says partial. It is not relabeled as a station that was never accessible.

SF BART

Source

Station names and locations come from BART’s public station list. Elevator outages come from BART’s elevator advisory, which names a station code and a place, not a total. Totals come from BART’s Elevator Dimensions guide, dated 2022, one count per station code. See the official elevator page.

BART does not publish escalator outages to this site. There is no escalator source.

How we count

Running elevators are the 2022 total minus the stations named in the advisory. San Francisco International Airport is 0 in that guide because the station is street-level. It is written as accessible, no elevator, not as a station that was never accessible. If a code has no count in the guide, an outage is shown without a fraction.

That 2022 count can be wrong if BART has added or removed an elevator since. We do not update it from memory. Until a newer official count replaces the guide, “2 of 3” means 2 of the 2022 total, not a count made today. An empty escalator line is not a claim that every escalator works.

Chicago L

Source

Station names, locations, and line order come from CTA’s public GTFS schedule. Wheelchair boarding on that same feed is the accessible list: 1 is listed accessible, 2 is not wheelchair accessible. 0 would be unknown, and is not marked inaccessible. Elevator outages come from CTA’s Customer Alerts API: active accessibility alerts, not the common planned set, kept only when the impact is elevator status and the service is a train station. A route-only alert is not copied onto every station. An unmatched station id is not assigned. See the official elevator page. Data provided by Chicago Transit Authority.

CTA does not publish a clean escalator-outage feed to this site. There is no escalator source.

How we count

One matching alert is one elevator outage. It is not “no working elevators,” and it is not “2 of 3 running.” CTA does not give this site a per-station elevator total. We do not invent one, and we do not use an old inventory to fill the gap. A station listed not wheelchair accessible is that mark, not an outage. A listed-accessible station with no alert is not a claim that every elevator is running.

Brown, Orange, Pink, and Purple run one way around the Loop. The line on the map follows the scheduled track along the elevated streets, not a straight line between stations. State/Lake is on the north side, between Clark/Lake and Washington/Wabash. It is closed for reconstruction until 2029, so trains are not stopping there. It is not an elevator outage. If CTA later reports an elevator status for that station, the report replaces this note.

Philadelphia

Source

Station names, locations, and line order come from SEPTA’s public GTFS. This map is the Market-Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line, including the Broad-Ridge Spur. Broad Street Express uses those same stations and is not drawn as a second line. Regional Rail and the Norristown High Speed Line are on SEPTA’s elevator page and are not drawn here. An empty mark is not a claim about those lines. See the official elevator page. Data provided by SEPTA.

SEPTA does not publish an escalator-outage feed to this site. There is no escalator source.

How we count

Wheelchair boarding on the stops this map draws is the accessible list: 1 is listed accessible, 2 is not wheelchair accessible. 0 would be unknown, and is not marked inaccessible. If the stops at one station disagree, the station is not wheelchair accessible. That mark is not an outage.

Elevator outages come from SEPTA’s elevator status feed. SEPTA says that list is updated daily. This site reads it about every minute, and it cannot be newer than the list. One matching elevator is one outage. It is not a count of how many remain, and it is not a claim that every elevator is out. A listed-accessible station with no outage is not a claim that every elevator is running. An unmatched station name on these two lines is listed without a map dot. It is not dropped, and it is not assigned to a nearby station.

Portland MAX

Source

Station names, locations, and line order come from TriMet’s public GTFS for MAX Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, and Orange. Streetcar and WES are not drawn here. Elevator outages come from TriMet’s elevator status page. TriMet lists elevators at a short set of stations, transit centers, and park-and-rides — not at every MAX stop.

TriMet does not publish an escalator-outage feed to this site. There is no escalator source.

How we count

An outage heading on that page is one elevator outage at the matching station. It is not a count of how many elevators remain, and it is not a claim that every elevator is out. Sites on that elevator list with no outage say no elevator outage reported. A MAX stop that is wheelchair accessible in GTFS and not on TriMet’s elevator list is written as accessible, no elevator — the same idea as a Boston surface stop. An unmatched name (for example a park-and-ride garage only) is listed without a map dot.

Where the agencies disagree with us

The agency’s own notice controls. This page is how we read their feeds. It is not a promise that the station matches the map when you arrive.