A reader wants to know when a critical escalator at Hamilton station will be fixed by NJ Transit.
People never notice those little conveniences in their lives until they stop working, and especially if they don't work for a while.
That is the case of a finicky escalator serving the outbound tracks at the NJ Transit station in Hamilton, which has been out of service on 11 different occasions since 2014, according to a reader who deals with it daily. He has counted the alerts sent by NJ Transit warning riders there would be no escalator on that particular day.
The escalator carries passengers to an overpass crossing the busy Northeast Corridor line from the Trenton bound side of the tracks and to parking lots and a garage on the southbound side. While an elevator is available, it can be as balky as the escalator.
"The outbound platform is a mess! Last week the elevator was out of service and the week before that, the other escalator was out of service," he wrote on Monday. "Of course, the escalator in question is still not working."
Q: Perhaps you could shed some light on why the Hamilton station outbound platform escalator ("No. 3") is constantly out of service?
A: We asked NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith to illuminate us about the escalator issue and he said there is a mechanical issue with the gearbox.
"All elevators and escalators systemwide are managed by third party contractors," Smith said. "NJ Transit is currently in the process of working with its contractors to order parts and make the needed repairs to the gearbox on escalator number three at Hamilton."
However, Smith said there is no estimate when Escalator No. 3 will return to service.
If some NJ Transit commuters may think they've heard this scenario before, they are correct.
A November 2014 fire knocked out a bank of four escalators at Secaucus Junction station for more than a year. Those repairs were complicated by a wait for parts to be manufactured and shipped from overseas manufacturers and settling an insurance claim resulting from the fire. Here is a sample of the commuter angst that escalator problem produced on social media:
.@NJTRANSIT @EscalatorsAtSEC 254 days & no progress, if only a major national sporting event was happening #njtransit pic.twitter.com/yeE2fvmVOj
-- John Cowan (@JohnisCowan) August 1, 2015
During the year long wait, frustrated commuters set up a Twitter account named Secaucus escalators which Tweeted each day they were out of service. Finally, 302 days after the Nov. 18, 2014 fire, they were returned to service.
While the answers we get for commuters questions may not always what they'd like to hear, we hope that asking the question nudges officials in the right direction. Such as the process to retime some Route 10 traffic lights to reduce back-ups on local streets in Roxbury or whether NJ Transit could add electric buses to their fleet.
Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.