Transit woes? Escalator at brand-new Transbay Center already out-of-service

Twitter user @suldrew snapped a photo of an out-of-service escalator at the new Transbay Transit Center on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018. Twitter user @suldrew snapped a photo of an out-of-service escalator at the new Transbay Transit Center on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018. Photo: @suldrew Photo: @suldrew Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Transit woes? Escalator at brand-new Transbay Center already out-of-service 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

If you're in a public transit station and all the escalators are functioning, you're probably not in the Bay Area.

BART riders have long griped about what seems to be a constant breakdown of escalators in Bay Area stations. Of 177 BART escalators, virtually every single one was out of service for at least dozens of days between April 2015 and May 2017, the Chronicle learned last year.

TRANSBAY NEWS: Officials figuring out how to pay bills, even as it opens

The plague of unusable escalators seems to have reached the Transbay Transit Center. The $2.2 billion bus terminal, officially known as the Salesforce Transit Center, officially opened Monday. On Tuesday, visitors attempting to reach the top-floor garden were faced with a non-functioning escalator.

Twitter user @suldrew spotted the out-of-service utility, wedged between two functioning escalators, and shared a photo of it on the social media site.

"It's not SF without a dead escalator," he wrote.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Transbay Transit Center said the escalators were "intentionally turned off during non-peak hours as part of calibration and fine tuning and they were back on for the peak afternoon commute hour. All escalators are functioning at the Transit Center."

A BREAKDOWN: BART'S BROKEN ESCALATOR PROBLEMS

It's unknown whether the inoperative escalator faced a malfunction after the terminal's opening, or is simply a casualty of ongoing construction.

As for BART, the Chronicle investigation found a series of factors contributing to the frequent escalator breakdowns: aging equipment coupled with surging ridership; litter and debris, including hypodermic needles and human waste; and vandalism.

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.

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