Broken Subway Escalator Takes Up to '24 Days' for Repairs

There is nothing more perplexing for office workers than when a subway escalator, which they had been using just yesterday, suddenly goes into 'repairs.'

Seeing an escalator that has been under repair for several days before facing the stairs on a high floor can naturally elicit a sigh.

Considering that there aren't always workers present, it doesn't seem like the repairs should take a long time. So why are the broken escalators left unattended?

It has been confirmed why subway escalators cannot be repaired immediately despite the significant inconvenience to commuters.

On the 1st of this month, Channel A reported that it took an average of 2 days and 15 hours to repair broken escalators within Seoul Subway Lines 1 to 8 from 2020 until February this year. According to the report, the longest repair period for an escalator was 24 days and 10 hours.

The Seoul Transportation Corporation stated, "Due to the variety of manufacturers and models, and because some parts are custom-made, it takes time."

The corporation explained that "certain parts need to go through legal inspections by the Korea Elevator Safety Agency" and that repair times are inevitably extended due to 'parts supply issues.'

During the same period, it was found that out of a total of 1,871 escalators, 984 had malfunctioned at least once. Among malfunction incidents, Line 7 had the highest at 302 cases, followed by Line 6 (202 cases) and Line 5 (189 cases).

The Seoul Transportation Corporation has set the replacement standard for escalators at '20 years' according to the Enforcement Rules of the Local Public Enterprises Act, but reported that the lack of budget has hindered smooth replacements.

In fact, the budget allocated for replacing aging escalators this year is a total of 25.25 billion won, but considering the average replacement cost of 550 million won per unit, only about 46 units, which is merely 7.2% of all aging escalators, can be replaced.

A representative from the Seoul Transportation Corporation stated, "It is difficult to push for the replacement of aging elevators with just our own budget," and added, "We are working hard to make national funding possible through central investment reviews of local finances."

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