Why Are None of the Strip Escalators Working?

Having been to Vegas this week [4/26], I was very disappointed that not one of the escalators on the crossovers was working. The center stairs were crowded with people walking up and down. Or in some places the bars and cafes were moved and people walked up the stationary escalators. What’s up with that?

There are, in total, 48 escalators on the Strip over a nearly three-mile stretch, so you probably didn't see all four dozen of them, and Clark County Public Information Officer Dan Kulin tells us that some were working while you were there. A few of the most popular ones, however, were down.

“We’ve had some repairs and maintenance on escalators at Tropicana and at Spring Mountain. Most are expected to be working again within the next week or so." Which means that those, at least, are probably working now two-plus weeks later.

"We also have routine maintenance that your reader may have encountered.”

Repair crews are supposed to be on standby in case of breakdowns, but the situation you witnessed may have kept them overextended.

As we noted in a similar QoD last November, the Strip’s outdoor escalators are susceptible to weather conditions, debris and rubble that often accumulate in the guts of the machines, and not-infrequent vandalism. Fail-safe sensors, switches, and mechanisms in the escalators take them out of service if they sustain too much abuse, either environmental or deliberate.

Also, Clark County may not have been ready for the recent onslaught of visitors after a year of fallow foot traffic along the Strip.

And county maintenance might be short-staffed these days, along with many other businesses and governments, in its efforts to maintain 8,000 square miles of southern Nevada on (lately) an attenuated tax base. To put that in perspective, Clark County is larger than some states, such as Massachusetts, and ranks as the 22nd largest county in the U.S., out of 3,143 of them, including county equivalents such as boroughs, parishes, capital districts, census areas, but not U.S. territories.

We know that's not much consolation when you're forced to take stairs up and down to cross the Strip and the main thoroughfares, especially after trudging all day from casino to casino. But at least you have an answer to your question.

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Comments

Dave_Miller_DJTB May-13-2021

not-infrequent vandalism

That’s putting it mildly. 

A video recently went around on social media showing a guy in his twenties on the escalator. When he neared the bottom, he jammed his sneaker into the step which triggered the sensor causing the escalator to stop.

It’s obvious that it was no accident since he had a buddy recording it. As he walked off the stopped escalator, he turned to look at it, then turned back, laughing.

lisagbell45 May-13-2021

Escalators

Isn't that common? I've been to Vegas on numerous occasions and the escalators are always down.

jay May-13-2021

Elevators

In absence of a working escalator would the Elevators not have been available ? Personally the thought of being in a stinky elevator on the strip with drunks, thugs and the rest of the worlds unwashed masses would not be my first choice but I would think that the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) have a mandate to keep this running at all times and provide an alternative when its not. IE a Harem of show girls to carry a wheel chair on their feathered bowas up and down the stairs.

O2bnVegas May-13-2021

Those elevators

I'd walk a block to a crosswalk rather than take one of those elevators, but I have used one on occasion.  Stuffy, reeeally slow, not spic and span, but never had to share it with other humans.  I guess others fear "the world's unwashed masses" also, and choose other modes, including shoe-leather express.  

Candy

O2bnVegas May-13-2021

Re Dave_Miller_DJTB

I had to chuckle at the vandalism story.  Some 60+ years ago my 4-5 year old little brother's curiosity stopped an escalator and ruined a shoe in the high end department store in town (now Dillards).  He couldn't resist sticking his toe where a step came to the floor.  Didn't hurt his foot, fortunately.  Mom said it caused a scene as a store employee worked to free the shoe.  Not really vandalism, just kid curiosity.  Not much changes, though, does it?

Candy

Jackie May-13-2021

ADA??

Jay, as far as Nevada casinos are concerned, ADA means Another Drink Allowed. Everyone on this list knows that you can't walk down an aisle of slots that are fully taken up by others so there is no way anyone with a cane, walker, or wheel chair could get to an open slot machine and even if you did many angry slot customers would be pissed at you for being in their way.  There is a reason table games are so high, most would say it's for standing dealers, no it's not.  When I had to use a walker I had poker room players actually throw my walker across the room and later when I had to have a wheel chair they objected to the room it took up at the poker table and had me sit in a regular chair at the poker table while others waiting for a seat took joy rides in my wheel chair and not one casino employee would do anything to stop then from such actions.

Nevada casinos hates the handicapped, we take up too much room limiting their greed.

Roy Furukawa May-13-2021

re: vandalism

Unfortunately, the guy in Dave's story and Candy's memories are the same mental age, but the big difference is you expect it from the actual 5-year-old.

Carl LaFong May-13-2021

Lisagbell45

That's odd. I've been going to Vegas dozens of times over the last 20 years and I've never experienced the escalators ALWAYS DOWN. Many times I've walked the strip from Tropicana to Desert Inn Rd and only on occasion have I seen but one or two not operating.

gaattc2001 May-13-2021

Just for comparison...

When I rode the Washington D.C. subway many years ago, every station I went through had at least one dead escalator. By contrast, on the Moscow Metro in 2012, the escalators were all working fine. Of course, the Moscow Metro is hundreds of feet deep, so the escalators had jolly well better be working.

Question of the Day - 13 May 2021

Comments