In a plea to promote mental health awareness in the region, the escalator that services University of Washington station spoke out today against the hordes of shaming transit riders who have written him off as broken.
“Despite the literal mountain of shit I’ve already been through that I didn’t ask for in my young life, I am not broken – I am on a healing journey on my own non-linear timeline, not yours, okay?” said the escalator. “So, while I know it may suck for you that I’m always inconsistent, unreliable, and never help out as promised, just know I’m doing my best.”
While sympathetic to healing past traumas and the need to sometimes just be temporarily stairs, some transit riders questioned whether the escalator really was on a healing journey and in therapy, or just saying that to deflect accountability for its consistently problematic behavior.
“Look, I don’t think the escalator’s permanently broken either, but I am questioning whether it’s really been getting the therapy, diagnosis and treatment that he needs for his sake and ours,” said public transit rider Melissa Brown. “I know therapy can be pricey, but if I find out this whole time his and Sound Transit’s idea of him healing has just been watching escalator therapy TikToks all day, I swear to f-ing God … Do. The. Work.”
Asked for comment, eight older, currently malfunctional Sound Transit escalators maintained that while they are not “broken” either, they are most certainly not on “some stupid healing journey” and “definitely do not need and will never need any kind of therapy ever because they’re fine, just fine.”
