Metro doesn’t just move people across the region, it also moves people UP.

The transit agency now boasts it is the “single largest vertical transportation operator in North America.”

The agency has almost 900 pieces of vertical movers, including 589 escalators and 271 elevators, according to its latest budget proposal. They deliver more than 3 million trips each weekday, according to Metro.

Not included in those tallies perhaps, though, is how many times people are hiking up the escalators instead of riding them.

As of Monday morning, 74 escalators and nine elevators were out of commission for repair work, according to Metro.

An independent review from Vertical Transportation Excellence in the fall faulted Metro for its poor maintenance practices on elevators and escalators, leading them to break down throughout the system. And shortly thereafter, at least six riders were injured when brakes malfunctioned on an escalator at L'Enfant Plaza and caused the moving staircase to speed up, dumping riders in a heap.

Now the transit agency says it is trying to improve the situation. In December, as The Washington Examiner first reported, the agency reorganized the department and brought in a new leader. 

But Metro officials have warned that more pain must come before the gains as escalators are repaired one by one. Commuters using Foggy Bottom station, for example, are facing a year of construction as the agency replaces all the escalators and builds a canopy above them.