'The Machinery Crunched & Collapsed On Itself': Busted Subway Escalator Adds Jolt Of Panic To Monday Morning Commutes

Coming soon to a subway station near you: The Deathscalator

Days after a falling piece of 7 train trackbed impaled a moving car in Woodside, Queens, the MTA is bringing its narrowly-averted-freak-accident energy into a brand new week. On Monday morning, a malfunctioning escalator at 5th Avenue and 53rd Street ground to a halt, shredding and buckling the machine’s steel steps as terrified commuters tripped over one another.

Lyana Fernandez, a commuter taking the A train from Inwood, said she heard a "booming sound" while ascending the station's moving staircase just before 9 a.m. this morning. "The machinery just kind of crunched and collapsed on itself," she told Gothamist. "It sounded like a truck had smashed into a wall. I heard people scream. A couple people tripped over it. Miraculously, no one seemed to be hurt."

Fernandez managed to capture a photo of the escalator's gnarled inner-workings, prompting widespread yikes across Twitter. State Senator Brad Hoylman called it "incredibly dangerous and scary." Others dutifully updated their worst subway fears list.

In a statement, MTA spokesperson Shams Tarek told Gothamist, "We have personnel on scene fixing this escalator and helping to direct customers to another escalator and stairs. This is a very rare and troubling thing to see, we’re glad there are no reported injuries, and a full investigation is underway."

Troubling indeed. Particularly when you realize this morning's photo does somewhat resemble an image taken in the aftermath of October's "apocalyptic" escalator collapse in Rome, which hurled dozens of soccer fans through the air and resulted in 24 injuries. Video of that scene is harrowing, as is the more abstract but still very real prospect of our city's infrastructure descending to Italy levels of deterioration.

Of course, busted escalators and elevators throughout the subway system have been a persistent achilles heel for our very own transit authority. A recent study by the Comptroller found that about 80 percent of all MTA escalators and elevators don't get their scheduled preventative maintenance service assignments, and that the authority does not track whether all of the defects found in its elevators and escalators are corrected.

Like so many others, this particular station does not have an elevator. According to Fernandez, the adjacent escalator was under construction until last weekend. "I'm just going to take the stairs from now on," she told us.

On Wednesday, MTA board members are expected to vote on a proposed increase in the base fare from $2.75 to $3 per trip. If it passes, Access-a-Ride users—those who often don't have the option to take the stairs—could see a 9.1 percent fare increase per ride, more than double what it would be for MetroCard-using commuters.