There is a situation regarding safety on the escalators at New York Penn Station that must be brought to the attention of New Jersey Transit. At 7:40 AM I was trying to get to the 7:44 North Jersey Coast Train on Track 10 on the 7th Avenue concourse. The escalator was going down, but as I was in the middle of my trip downstairs a group of passengers that detrained from Track 9 approached the escalator. An assertive, but stupid passenger wanted to go up and turned off the escalator while people were trying to go down. This is potentially dangerous as someone could fall and be seriously injured. I have two concerns:
- Why wasn’t the switch to turn off the escalator locked?
- Why was there no customer service representative there to stop the escalator when there no passengers going down? I have seen them there before turning the escalators on or off or changing the direction.
I really suggest that New Jersey Transit look into this before there is an accident.