City Thameslink Escalators

[LDP]

It seems that the up escalators on the Northbound platform (North Exit) have been out of service for months, maybe even a year. The second set to street level have also been out for a few months. Anyone got any info on when they will be fixed, the station staff do not know.
Is there any logical reason why they cannot simply reverse the down escalators in the morning to help clear the backlog of passengers exiting.
Thanks

 

[Ken X]

No idea about the local situation but unfortunately reversing escalators is not a trivial operation, particularly when they have run in one direction for some time. They wear in, and reversing without a careful refurbishing operation is often followed by a large and very expensive pileup of steps which is obviously dangerous to the user and can require major repairs.
If a machine is regularly reversed it can be OK but not otherwise.
Had to explain this to a few owners over the years but it still happens occasionally.

 

[Hadders]

No idea about the local situation but unfortunately reversing escalators is not a trivial operation, particularly when they have run in one direction for some time. They wear in, and reversing without a careful refurbishing operation is often followed by a large and very expensive pileup of steps which is obviously dangerous to the user and can require major repairs.
If a machine is regularly reversed it can be OK but not otherwise.
Had to explain this to a few owners over the years but it still happens occasionally.

If the escalator is capable of being run in the reverse direction then this should be done periodically. For example, the escalators to the Thameslink platforms at St Pancras are run in the reverse direction on Sundays.

I passed through the north exit at City Thameslink on my to the office last week and thought it strange that the only operational escalator was running in the down direction during the morning peak when practically everyone is exiting the station. Then again, this is GTR....