For years, the MTA has struggled with its escalators. At stations that are deep underground, the moving staircases — which operate for 24 hours and take quite a beating — break regularly, and when they do, repairs are often slow to come. Today, we arrive at 181st St. where one of the the lengthy escalators has been broken since February. Then earlier this week, the second escalator broke, and suddenly straphangers had to hike up and down the staircases.
For residents of the area, broken escalators in Washington Heights are, in fact, the norm. NY1 reports that the MTA says these escalators work less than half of the time. “I moved to this neighborhood in 2006, and it’s been going on since,” one subway rider said. The first escalator was repaired fairly quickly, but the one out since February remains entombed in a wooden box.
The MTA offered up an array of excuses. As Tina Redwine reports, “MTA officials said the problem with the 181st Street escalator is that workers needed to disassemble heavy equipment, one piece weighing up to 2500 pounds, in order to send the escalator out for repair. Then it has to be reinstalled and tested.” It will be another 10 weeks at least, and the authority said that this timeline is “not good enough.” Still, as we’ve seen at Lexington at 53rd St. and countless stations around the system, broken escalators are the norm far more often than they should be.
16 comments
I’ve lived near this station and the 125th St station on the 1 train, which is very elevated and has 3 escalators. They break constantly. Nothing like coming home at the end of a long day and hiking up four long flights.
Is it as bad as the Washington Metro?
Its true, these three (narrow) escalators are always breaking down. I wish they would just rip all three out and in their place, install two very wide ones that allow others to pass by those who just like to stand and enjoy the ride.
The biggest problem is the technology. I honestly don’t believe there is an escalator known to man that is made to handle the 24 hour pounding and volume provided by the NYC Subway system. No warranty will cover the weight, foot traffic and constant moving of parts all day, everyday for 365 days a year.
Sure you can say it’s no excuse, but until someone comes out with something that can handle what the MTA dishes at it then we’ll continue to see this problem day in and day out.
Escalators at the South Ferry IRT station have a sensor that turns them on/off depending on whether passengers are nearby and ready to step on to the escalator. If there’s no foot traffic for 10 or 20 mins, the escalators stop running. Wonder how difficult it would be for the MTA to retrofit old escalators to do the same. Would cut back on the wear-n-tear of all those parts moving 24/7.
That being said, the South Ferry escalators are often down for service. And yes, they almost NEVER turn the “down” escalator into an “up” escalator for some damn stupid reason that I can’t figure out.
The TA had that technology 40 years ago for escalators at several stations, including the 7/E/F/EE/GG transfer at 74th St.-Roosevelt Avenue, only using a footpad (“Please Step on Treadle”) instead of a motion sensor.
I’m sure the TA mechanics union shot that down quick. Don’t want to put some $60/hour escalator technician out of work. Even worse are the two down escalators at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal in Manhattan. They run 24/7 even though SI Ferry boats unload every half hour (and every hour during the overnights). These escalators (using a ton of electricity no doubt) get about 5 mins of passenger use for every hour they run. Total waste of money.
If I remember correctly, they stopped using that technology a lomg time ago at some stations such as West 4th St., because some people would start walking DOWN an Up escalator while it was stopped, assuming that it was out of order and could be used as a stairway.
The humorous result was that then somebody else would step on the base of the escalator to go UP.
The hapless passenger who had already walked halfway down
would suddenly find himself being carried back upward, while still facing in the opposite direction!
And injuries probably resulted.
The ones at South Ferry don’t shut off entirely – they just slow down if they haven’t been in use for a few minutes, to prevent that problem.
Fast, Good and Cheap, pick 2 of 3. More like pick 1 of 3 with the MTA.
I smell Washington Metro problems at the MTA. The 53rd lex escalator was out of service for decades. There is no excuse. Its a conscious decision not to repair them or delay repairs as long as possible. Delaying repairs will often pushes them to the next financial year, so theres your financial motive. Deferred maintenance. I see escalators out of service for weeks or months. Not 1 worker is at the site for weeks. If this were a Manhattan office building, heh, 4 hours guaranteed.
The worst of the escalators at 53rd and Lex is privately maintained. (Or privately not-maintained, as the case may be.)
Manhattan office buildings have a slightly more hospitable environment for escalators, don’t you think?
I’m talking about the one to the E, M train platform. Not the 6 train transfer.
Remember what I said the other day about the Up escalator at the just-opened Court Square connection?
It was ALREADY broken by Saturday.
AND, why couldn’t some MTA employees REVERSE the Down escalator right next to it? Better to have to walk down that to have to walk up.
Now, the elevator WAS working, but not all stations with escalators have an elevator also.
When was it broken? Both were running at Court Sq when I was there Saturday evening.
The escalators at Court Square are working fine. Are you positive they were out already?
THAT’S GOOD NEWS!
But I’m not crazy. I was there last Saturday afternoon, and the Up escalator was motionless. I observed some people walking up the stairs, and I myself took the elevator.