Roosevelt Island Tram Safety Straps Placed In Cabins, Shorter People Now Able To Hold On To Bars - Less Wobble Near The Tram Tower But No Air Conditioning For Cabin

Tram Safety Strap Unveiled at Transportation Town Hall Meeting

During last Thursday's Roosevelt Island Transportation Town Hall Meeting,

Image of Roosevelt Island Town Hall Meeting

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Vice President of Operations Fernando Martinez announced that safety straps will soon be in place on the Roosevelt Island Tram Cabin holding bars. Soon arrived on Saturday as the Safety Straps were installed and being used by Tram Passengers.

Tram Safety Strap In Use By Riders This Weekend

Another issue involving the Tram was asked by this reader recently:

I just realized last week that the Tram does not have A/C because we were sweating buckets. Do you know why they did not decide to add A/C to the new Tram? Was it just a matter of cost?

I replied:

I think it was a function of cost as well as the limited time of the trip - approximately 4 minutes

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Director (or perhaps former Director?) Jonathan Kalkin answers the reader's question:

Really has to do with weight and the amount of passengers we would have to lose each trip. The new tram with an AC unit would have held less people and the battery to charge the AC wouldn't have enough time to charge at the station. However, I noticed that they haven't opened up all the windows when I was on it. All windows should be open which should really cool it down. I took pictures, sent it to Ops, and they are talking with the Tram team to make sure they open all the windows.

How often do any of the other RIOC Directors ever answer resident questions like Mr. Kalkin does on a regular basis? Just another reason to keep Mr. Kalkin on the RIOC Board.

Also, have you noticed any change in the Tram shaking when it nears the Towers on it's trip over the East River? I certainly have noticed much improvement recently after RIOC made mechanical and electrical improvements to the Cable suspension. 

UPDATE 11:55 AM - Mr. Kalkin adds:

Very happy to see the Tram straps and stabilization systems starting to work that I ordered to have studied and fought for on the Operations Committee . Many residents including myself had noticed these issues and I thought the best way to highlight them was to have RIOC President Leslie Torres and Fernando Martinez RIOC VP of Ops ride with me on the Tram awhile back to see it firsthand. Additional poles were discussed as well however that is probably something that has to examined more closely to see if these improvements are the only possible or sufficient ones.  It is great to see ideas from the people of this Island translate into real action.

Here's how the process of community input to RIOC Board action began.