The new $2.4 billion No. 7 train station looked shiny and modern as riders took their first weekday trips Monday, but an escalator broke down in the morning.
The escalator, which connects the lower mezzanine with the upper mezzanine, went down about 11:05 a.m. The MTA doesn’t expect it to be working until Wednesdaymorning, said its website.
Its handrail went off track about 5:40 a.m., and the escalator went back into use about 6:40 a.m., an MTA spokesman said. The contractor then took it out of service again to adjust the handrail.
“This tends to happen when new escalators are broken in,” said spokesman Kevin Ortiz. The new station has the longest escalators in the subway system. Before the first passenger train left the station on Sunday, firefighters had to respond to a stuck elevator, according to the FDNY.
The station’s opening on 34th Street and 11th Avenue was delayed as the MTA struggled with installing incline elevators and finishing up testing of safety systems.
Despite the snag, subway riders praised the station and used their phones to take pictures and videos.
Colette O’Connor, 65, of Woodside, took her 3-year-old grandson Devlin, a budding transit enthusiast, to the station Monday.
“I love it. I was taking pictures all over it,” she said. “We made a special trip just to see this. He loves trains. It’s nice and clean and bright, it’s lovely.”
Gerald Wright, 68, of the Upper West Side, said he was surprised that it takes two elevators to get to the street level of the station.
“It’s very spacious,” he said. “This was a lost part of town. It was basically the Hudson River and abandoned trains. We only have 13 miles of Manhattan, we might as well utilize it.”
