BART Tackles Unprecedented Escalator Outages with Additional Repair Staff

BART has assigned additional staff in a concentrated effort to repair out-of-service escalators, particularly the 12 escalators out of service in the downtown San Francisco stations. Thanks to this additional effort, BART expects to have seven of the 12 escalators in San Francisco back in operation by June 22.

"BART’s escalator/elevator repair team, normally numbering about 10 technicians for the downtown stations, has been augmented by reassigning six qualified technicians to tackle the unprecedented outages," said Paul Oversier, assistant general manager of Operations. "The BART repair team has also been working overtime and called upon the services of contractors to speed up the repair timeline."

“We understand why our customers are upset that some of most heavily used escalators are not available,” BART Board President John McPartland said. “Having so many escalators out of service is certainly not the standard our customers have come to expect and we’re taking steps to address the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

BART has 179 escalators and 140 elevators throughout the 44-station system. BART’s goal is to have at least 95 percent of the street escalators and 98 percent of the elevators in service. Elevators are critically important for access to the disabled, so elevator updates are available via email at bart.gov/alerts or by visiting bart.gov/sms to learn about on-demand updates via text message or by calling our Elevator Availability phone line: (510)834-LIFT or (888)235-3828.