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Elevatori Club, your October 2024 messages

 In Elevatori Club
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Would you like to show us some installations that have impressed you? Do you have a question to ask an expert? Or do you have an answer to a question from our readers? Write to us at club@elevatori.eu, we will be happy to publish you!

In the meantime, we continue to publish the contributions you have sent us in recent weeks. Other news items are currently being selected and will soon be published in the Club Section of the www.elevatorimagazine.com website.

Follow us and continue to write to us in great numbers!

You can read the past months’ messages by clicking here.

In September, we received a question from a reader concerning escalators. This question was answered by Luca Borgonovo, an expert on the subject. We reproduce the question and the expert’s answer.

Open question for escalator experts

Dear friends of Elevatori Club, I am writing to share a curiosity I have about the running direction of escalators. I live in Milan and it sometimes happens to me to take escalators that have a different running direction from the one we are used to: that is, passengers keep to the left instead of the right, as is the norm in Italy for the running direction of cars, walkers and even bicycles. It has happened to me, for example, at the Bonola shopping centre, at Bicocca Village, or on the metro, line 5, at the Garibaldi stop.
Could any of the experts in the field explain why?
Thank you, Roberto

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Answer: the direction of travel of escalators

The travel direction of all stairs and escalators can be reversed. When an installation operates for a long time in one direction of travel, the mechanical parts settle and are stressed by the stresses generated by that direction of travel. Many operators, in order to avoid this, regularly reverse the direction of travel to achieve even wear of the mechanical parts and safeguard the installation.

In reality, it is the case that systems that have been operating for many years in one direction of travel and have to be reversed for contingent reasons (e.g. a fault in the system next door) have numerous problems with noise, interference and unwanted contact that can create problems for driving comfort and cause unwanted failures.

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Consider, for example, the fact that if users stand on the right-hand side of the system, the right-hand step chain and its mechanical components will be more stressed than the left-hand step chain. Regularly reversing the direction of travel rebalances and better balances the load distribution over time on both sides of the escalator. In some cases, the direction of travel can simply be determined by changing the layout of the served area to organise the flow of people differently.

Luca Borgonovo | AKE Elevators, Escalators, Accessibility Systems

Good practices in Milan

Communication and transparency with the public can mitigate user discomfort. In the event of lift or escalator breakdown, it is always a good idea to apologise to travellers, communicate what the problem is and indicate the timetable for restoring the systems. A virtuous example comes from ATM – Azienda Trasporti Milanesi, which in the Turati metro station (yellow line M3) has posted a clear notice of an escalator breakdown.

The photo, taken in mid-October 2024, comes to us from a reader who wrote: “This notice struck me very much because, in the face of an inconvenience, it shows attention to travellers on the part of the company. I often travel on public transport, in Milan and around Italy, and you don’t always see the same care”.

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A suggestion for the future: for an international city such as Milan, an English version of the message would be appropriate, as is already the case for voice announcements on trains and in stations.

The lift becomes a big screen

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Dear friends of Elevatori Club,
I am sending you a photograph I took a few days ago in Milan, inside the new Merlata Bloom shopping centre, in the Cascina Merlata area.

I was very impressed by this lift, which has big screens mounted on the walls, used to project advertising videos from various companies. The result is very eye-catching and certainly does not go unnoticed.

There are now many big screens in the city, for example in place of classic billboards, or on the scaffolding of buildings under renovation in the city centre… in short, just about everywhere. But on a lift, I had never seen any.

I am curious: do you know of any other installations of this kind around Europe?
Thank you, Martina

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