You must have missed the part where it said: "had to be taken out and replaced".
I take that to mean that it will be much quicker than either the escalator or the elevator since it is an express ride from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor, the speed of which is determined mostly by gravity.
That could definitely be the case, however I took it more as "taken out [of service]" and the replacing was more the mechanisms. Which, if it involved the floating stairs themselves, then the shell of the escalator would probably indeed offer a treacherous descent instead of immobilized stairs.
I also took it as an opportunity to use some Mitch Hedberg, so, I rightly don't care much for the specifics of this particular escalator.
