Maxton Manufacturing Co. contributed its elevator control valve technical and training materials to the Elevator/Escalator Transit Consortium, a comprehensive partnership of five U.S. transit agencies to develop and organize needed training materials and systems for a transit elevator/escalator maintenance apprenticeship program. The Consortium, made up of BART (San Francisco), WMATA (Washington, D.C.), SEPTA (Philadelphia), NYCT (New York) and MARTA (Atlanta), and their local unions, is operated through the Transportation Learning Center, a national non-profit labor-management partnership based in Silver Spring, Md.
Maxton was contacted by Jim Kinahan, program director at the Transportation Learning Center, to convey the Consortium's view that Maxton, as the largest single producer of elevator control valves in North America, is an invaluable partner in its initiatives to build a strong national training and apprenticeship program for transit elevator/escalator mechanics.
Seeing the inherent value in this undertaking, Maxton updated and provided the Consortium with direct access to its training materials. Maxton has also offered to provide on-site training for instructors as part of the program. Maxton share's the Consortium's vision of quality training that produces highly skilled transit technicians in turn improving reliability, safety, overall elevator/escalator performance and customer satisfaction.
The new Maxton training materials will be integrated into the Consortium's shared resources, which will include a full range of materials, including lesson plans, instructor and participant guides, course books and presentation materials. The Consortium project is currently underway, with full content expected to be finished by August 2013.
"With all the elevator/escalator incidents and accidents of late Maxton knows the importance of quality training not only to those that maintain this equipment, but those who ride it. It takes an industry effort and this is another way Maxton can contribute," said Karl Keller, marketing director with Maxton.