All Ten Roosevelt Island Subway Escalators Out of Service - Pass the Oxygen Cannisters

Roosevelt Islanders using the subway should be prepared with oxygen cannisters as they make their way up the 157 steps from the subway platform to the street today because Roosevelt Island 360 is reporting that:

Today is an extemely bad day for the subway escalators at Roosevelt Island. Ten Escalators are out of service. Ten out of Ten. This is absolutely ridiculous and who ever the station manager is should be in big trouble for not demanding repair crews working all night to fix the escaltors that are not even under construction.

MTA elevator status page is here.

What happened to these new escalators just installed?

Image by Kevin Smith

Maybe the MTA needs to read this from How Stuff Works on escalators:

The core of an escalator is a pair of chains, looped around two pairs of gears. An electric motor turns the drive gears at the top, which rotate the chain loops. A typical escalator uses a 100 horsepower motor to rotate the gears. The motor and chain system are housed inside the truss, a metal structure extending between two floors. Instead of moving a flat surface, as in a conveyer belt, the chain loops move a series of steps. The coolest thing about an escalator is the way these steps move. As the chains move, the steps always stay level. At the top and bottom of the escalator, the steps collapse on each other, creating a flat platform. This makes it easier to get on and off the escalator.

You Tube Escalator video is here.

UPDATE - 9:20 PM: MTA Emergency Escalator SWAT team to the rescue. MTA elevator status page is now reporting only 6 of the 10 Roosevelt Island escalators are out of service.