After the failure of roughly 130 escalators at several German railway stations, the Federal Ministry of Transport is pressing Deutsche Bahn to resolve the situation quickly.
A spokesperson for Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) told the “Rheinische Post” that taking so many escalators out of service is especially annoying for people with limited mobility and that the resulting frustration is understandable.
The spokesperson added that the railway company had assured the ministry it was compelled to decommission the escalators out of precaution because a defect caused an abrupt stop, and that it is now working intensively with the manufacturer to bring them back into operation.
Escalators are currently out of order at stations such as Cologne‑Bonn Airport, Frankfurt, Dresden, Essen, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf. The first units are expected to resume service this Saturday, though the exact number of operable escalators is still unknown.