WESTWOOD, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- FOX25 News first uncovered maintenance issues at an Amtrak and train station in Westwood Tuesday and just a day later, crews were making repairs.
FOX25's Kerry Kavanaugh heard from a local group, which said the maintenance issues aren't just inconvenient but against the law. The New England Americans with Disabilities Act Center told us the maintenance issues we exposed amount to a civil rights violation. They said the lack of accessibility at the station in Westwood isn't just an issue for people with visible disabilities.
Kathy Gips said, "It made me sad and then, also, I felt sort of outraged."
Outrage following a FOX25 News investigation into broken down elevators and escalators at the Route 128 T station.
"So it's actually a civil rights violation not to maintain your accessible features," she said.
Gips and Oce Harrison with the New England ADA Center say this is a legal issue because of how long things have been out of service. We spotted escalators with failed inspection stickers dated October and July of last year.
"It's one thing if you have an antique elevator and you can't get the parts. But this is really beyond reasonable," Gips said.
There was notification on the MBTA website regarding an out of service elevator, but it was last updated Feb. 6. The ADA Center says it's not just an issue for people with disabilities.
MBTA rider Shana Sissel, who is 6 months pregnant said, "I get winded pretty easy at this point." She alerted us to the maintenance issues after getting no where with the MBTA and Amtrak.
"It's actually sad that since July no one's actually done anything to fix this and in the meantime, more things have gone wrong," she said.
After our story aired Tuesday night we returned Wednesday and saw that a crew was out to fix the track 2 escalator. The T and Amtrak said they were actively working to get things fixed. They said there's now funding to get replacement equipment and that the project will get underway in the coming weeks. It should take about 140 days.
The New England ADA center says it should not take that long, and the fact that is has been broken since July of last year is unacceptable.
Amtrak and the MBTA said they were also providing van service from the garage to the platforms. But the ADA center says that work around only works if people know about it. There were not postings about this at the station nor online, that we could find.