High Temperatures Cooking Roosevelt Island Tram Passengers Says Rider - Another Year Goes By And Nothing Is Done By RIOC To Cool Down Hot Tram In High Temps

Image Of Heat Exhaustion From AltaVista For Illustrative Purposes Only

Summer is coming and it's starting to get really hot and muggy in New York City particularly on the Roosevelt Island Tram which has no air conditioning or cooling system of any type. Today temperatures are expected to reach 90 degrees.

Residents of Roosevelt Island have taken to RI 311 See Click Fix to beg, plead and cry for some type of cooling relief when riding on the Tram.

Here are two RI 311 See Click Fix reports from residents yesterday:

Tram

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! When its hot can you PLEASE have the tram operators leave the doors open when docked? We really need the cross ventilation. Some operators do this - and say it's common sense. Others refuse. PLEASE make it a policy! Thank you.

and:

Another winter has gone by and the tram still has no cooling controls, nor do the tram stations, which now with the new imprisoning glass sarcophagus cook waiting passengers in the noon day sun.

This is not a new problem and it is an issue which was discussed last summer by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board Of Directors and Staff. As previously reported last July 12:

... During the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) June 25 Operations Committee meeting (full audio webcast of meeting here), RIOC Director David Kraut asked RIOC VP of Operations Fernando Martinez what can be done to prevent passengers, particularly children and older people, from passing out from heat exhaustion on the Tram.

Mr. Martinez explained that when the Tram was redesigned, it was decided not to include air conditioning in the Cabins because of the added weight which would reduce the number of passengers permitted to ride in the Cabins and the time needed to charge the batteries.

Mr. Kraut said that now that we have a greater experience of the Tram Cabin heat problem, let's look for a solution to the problem. It might be some sort of fan or air conditioning system that RIOC was not aware of but perhaps other people might have the solution.

Mr. Martinez said the matter will be discussed with Tram Operator Poma.

Here's the discussion.



Yesterday, I sent the following question to Mr. Martinez:

...during recent Operations Committee meeting, subject of cooling the Tram Cabins during very hot weather was discussed. Have any plans been made for fans, air conditioning or any other method of cooling down the Tram Cabins during hot weather?

Will update when an answer is received.

An answer was never received. Maybe this year?

More on Roosevelt Island Tram air conditioning from previous posts here and here.

UPDATE 10:40 AM: Readers respond:

• A-C, pleas!!
• or fan at least...
• Anything!
• I would not ride the tram in this weather it is to dam HOT