Birmingham New Street / Grand Central Escalators

[lammy]

I know this has come up from time to time but was wondering if anyone knows what the root cause of the ongoing escalator problems at Birmingham New Street are? Or if there is a plan to improve the situation beyond changing the direction of flow at weekends and reactive repair work to each breakdown?

Today, of the four escalators in the central atrium (i.e. the main escalators which take people up to the shops and eateries on the upper level), only one was in service, taking people up where they were effectively 'trapped' until they worked out (or were informed by staff) that they could walk all the way to the Victoria Square end to get back to the concourse level. Or go through John Lewis like I did. The public are not permitted to walk up and down the broken escalators.

There was a couple of maintenance personnel working on one of the out-of-service escalators. As I passed them on the way up I overheard a snippet of conversation conveying the sense of them facing a complex issue which would not be easy to rectify. The language was slightly more colourful.

It's all really rather embarrassing.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[Allwinter_Kit]

That is interesting. I don't know what the root cause is but I wonder if it is similar to whatever is afflicting the Southern Entrance at Leeds - those escalators went in at a similar time and are similarly broken on a regular/constant basis.

 

[HowardGWR]

Perhaps, more seriously, the three out of order are posing a potential fire safety issue?

 

[rdeez]

Even on a good day when they're working, you can often hear the escalators doing a large amount of squealing, or the 'ride' isn't smooth and they're stuttering in places.

I suppose patching them up piece by piece as they break is still cheaper, at least in the short term, than tearing them out and putting more reliable ones in...

 

[boxy321]

The escalator up from platform 4 (A end) has not worked for weeks. You can certainly use it though according to the lack of signage or cordon.

The experience of walking up or down a broken one is quite strange. The slats are mesmerising and you half expect it to start moving any second.

I wonder if the faults are anything to do with the station's subsidence problems, if that's what it is. Walk through and check out the yellow and black tape/boards covering the floor in places. There's been a lot of differential movement between two halves of the building.

 

[DarloRich]

there are also lots of scroat based stoppages - people keep pressing the stop buttons and running off - oh the japes!