Escalators typically provide a major portion of an underground station's vertical circulation capacity during normal operations. For emergency operations, however, escalators are not automatically allowed to be accounted for. If escalators can be included in the evacuation design, there is potential for more efficient station designs to be developed since the use of escalators for evacuation will reduce the egress capacity that otherwise must be provided by stairs. This paper provides a summary of research of the issues arising with the use of escalators for evacuation, the current knowledge of the subject, and the main design considerations that need to be acknowledged and considered during fire safety design in order to make use of that potential.