Thats it, they have had enough...revenge of the machines!!!

[Dessert Tears]

Originally posted by: middlehead
An escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. You should never see an "Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order" sign, just "Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

Not necessarily:

$1 Billion Later, New York?s Subway Elevators Still Fail, New York Times
On June 6th, during the evening rush, the chain snapped with a bang and the escalator stopped moving. People began walking down the escalator. The last person on was Magaly Diaz, a pregnant woman on her way home from work.

Suddenly, the escalator sprang back to life. Freed from the hold of the drive chain, the steps began freewheeling downhill, quickly picking up speed. It all went so fast that Ms. Diaz cannot even remember if she screamed.

Diaz twisted both her ankles at the bottom. The article also describes an incident where a step fell away under a passenger's foot.