Escalators broke down at the deepest New York subway station: passengers are forced to walk 10 flights of stairs

Walk up to the 10th floor? It is unlikely that many people would have signed up for this in New York. However, this has become a reality experienced by subway passengers in Manhattan. NBC New York.

Problems with escalators at the Fort Washington and 181st Street station along Line A force passengers up and down stairs equal to 10 flights of stairs to get to their trains or go outside.

This station, one of the deepest metro stations in the city, has three escalators. However, now all three are suddenly closed. For several weeks, only one escalator did not work, while others remained serviceable. By the end of May, the problem was promised to be solved.

But on May 16, signs appeared at the station informing passengers that the escalators would only be replaced by February 2023.

“For people with disabilities, this will be a huge problem,” said passenger Melissa Mosquito.

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The MTA has advised people to take the stairs, but this is far from an easy climb. Don't even think about carrying anything heavy up or down with you. The station is about 36 meters below street level.

“All escalators are connected to a common control mechanism. So, unfortunately, the only way to properly replace them is to stop them all at once,” said MTA President of Construction and Development Jamie Torres-Springer. The agency acknowledges their mistake and that they should have given advance notice of the impending outage.

The working elevators are at the far end of the platform. To get to them, you need not only to go down even lower, but then climb the stairs in one of the most hilly areas of the city.

“I don't know how, but the city has to solve this problem. It's just not possible,” said Rosario Castellanos, who lives next door.