We noted this morning that an escalator outage at Foggy Bottom was causing some problems for riders coming back to work after the holiday weekend. DCist reader Barbara Williams took the above camera phone shot, which shows precisely the kind of massive backup Metro riders experienced this morning. “With not a single escalator working, people were exiting trains and packing into the station with nowhere to go,” wrote Williams, who is six months pregnant and “pretty slow these days.”

“Between the elderly and the handicapped, the elevator line was long. If there was an emergency, fire or otherwise, there is no doubt many lives would have been lost,” she added.

One escalator started working again about a couple of hours ago — technicians remain on the scene to work on the others. (Of course, the Foggy Bottom escalators have been trouble for riders before.) Welcome back to work, Washington!