Escalator Madness From Roosevelt Island and Around The World!

You Tube video of man falling down escalator (not on Roosevelt Island)

MTA is reporting normal F Train Subway service this weekend for Roosevelt Island and the Tram is running on regular schedule as well. But, and there is always a but here on Roosevelt Island, there is growing anger and frustration with the MTA's inability to keep the escalators running as indicated by reader comments such as this from earlier escalator post:

According to the MTA website, 4 escalators are out of service... I assume they are referring to the ones that never seem to be working even though they should, as opposed to the ones that are actually being repaired.

Every day I leave and return to the Island, at least one set of escalators is out of order. And often, the elevator is out of commission as well. Is there any reason for this? I guess by that, I mean... Is there anything us Islanders can do?

Shouldn't the elevators be REQUIRED to work, given that RI has many disabled residents who may be stranded if the elevator isn't functional?

It becomes very frustrating watching the construction workers ogle and harass ladies while they stand around on the platforms, seeming to not work on the escalators being repaired OR the ones we're supposed to be using while the others are being fixed.

I think the 4 elevators referred to in above comment are the ones undergoing capital repairs not the elevators that work sometimes and not others.

And this:

The lower level up escalator has been turned off every day this week around 5:45, I don't know about other times. It was working every morning, so why is it turned off in the evening? Outrageous.

I have also noticed during the last 2 weeks that the Up escalator from the lower mezzanine to mid-mezzanine seems to shut down every day during the evening rush hour. Inexplicably, it is working during the afternoon and then like clockwork shuts down around 5 PM. Twice last week I was on this escalator when it suddenly stopped midway up, jolting the riders, almost causing some people to lose their balance and could have led to a serious accident like that in the above video from Japan.

At the recent Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island transportation meeting, I advised the MTA representative attending about this escalator and she said the MTA would send someone to monitor it. (As an aside, the MTA representatives did a good job listening and explaining the difficulties involved in solving some of these issues but Roosevelt Island needs some relief from these longstanding problems now). One thing we did learn was that the working down escalators can be reversed to go in the up direction when needed but requires some sort of key to be used by a trained employee at the station. Unfortunately, nobody at the Roosevelt Island subway station is trained in this procedure. The MTA rep cited this NY Times article on subway escalator and elevator shortcomings to illustrate problem:

Managers often rush balky elevators and escalators back into service without identifying the underlying causes of mechanical problems, leading to more breakdowns.

Many problems occur because of basic design flaws or mistakes made during the construction of the machines, when contractors worked with little or no oversight. Those conditions left many of the machines virtually broken from the outset.

“They don’t have enough competent people with the proper training,” said Michele O’Toole, the president of J. Martin Associates, which the transit agency hired in 2006 to evaluate its elevator operations. “It all reflects back to qualifications, training, capabilities.”

Now that we are all either thoroughly depressed or angered by the Roosevelt Island escalator insanity, lets have some FUN on ESCALATORS. I am sure the MTA would want me to say don't do any of these things yourself. It could be dangerous.

Ski down an escalator



Spin around on an escalator

You Tube video of Woman Spinning on Escalator

Levitate on an escalator

You Tube video of man levitating on escalator

And my favorite, waiting for an escalator to be fixed.

You Tube video of waiting for help on a stuck escalator

Any Favorites?