Escalators Out At Multiple Seattle Transit Stations

Sound Transit, Seattle’s public-transportation system, is being hit by escalator breakdowns at multiple stations, 770KTTH says. The report found there were broken escalators during the opening weeks of light rail station in Roosevelt, and similar problems, on both Christmas and New Year’s Day, at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The source said in early January there were 19 Sound Transit light rail escalators offline and under repair. It also said the Westlake station in downtown Seattle had seven escalators under repair as of the end of December 2021, and also had a halted elevator. At least eight shutdown escalators were spread among three other stations. According to the source, Sound Transit, officially known as the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, was unable to say when the affected escalators would return to operation. The company noted that most of its elevators and escalators, many dating back to the 1990s, are in need of repair. In addition, a number of the units didn’t come under Sound Transit’s control until 2021. The report says there was no clear schedule released to show when all the units would be operational, but noted that, overall, Sound Transit is spending billions of tax dollars to operate the system.