Watch Video Inside Swaying Roosevelt Island Tram Cabin During Tuesday's Mid Air Emergency Stop Caused By Passenger At Manhattan Tram Station Pushing Emergency Button - Happened Several More Times Recently Report Riders, RIOC Says They Will Look Into Covering The Button

As reported last Tuesday afternoon, April 9, the Roosevelt Island Tram had an emergency stop in mid air. A Tipster on the Tram at the time reported:

The tram just had a bad malfunction where it rocked sideways to extreme angles. I was on it. They had to stop it for 20 minutes mid air until they figured out how to bring it down.

What happened exactly is that the tram did stop suddenly, the driver immediately exclaimed "everyone hold on" while he was moving around his control I guess in attempt to check or activate something underneath the main screen.

A young girl on board said this exact thing happened before in the past (a few years back).

After the sudden stop the main issue is that they couldn't get it going again. They tried to start the movement but it wasn't starting smooth, kind of like a car anti-brake system feels when you break suddenly. They stopped again, tried again. For 3 or more times....

Here's video from inside the stuck rocking and swaying Roosevelt Island Tram after the emergency mid-air stop.(Click on full screen icon at bottom right of video for better view.)



Later that day, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) explained the cause of the mid-air stoppage as:

Roosevelt Island Tramway Emergency Stoppage Update

At 3:27 PM on Tuesday, April 9th the south cabin of the Roosevelt Island Tramway was halted mid-trip above the East River, for approximately 10 minutes due to the emergency stop button being activated by a passenger on the Manhattan Tramway station platform.

According to the Tramway operator, Leitner-POMA, the emergency button was manually released 3 ½ minutes after being activated. Before completing the trip to the station, it was necessary for the cabin to stop swaying (caused by the force stop), allowing the Tramway’s wireless receptor to re-synch...

 The next day, Wednesday, another Roosevelt Island Tipster reported two more incidents of the Tram stalling in mid-air:

Just came off the tram and it stalled for a few minutes midway. Also, as luck would have it, was on the 8am-ish tram this morning and it also stalled. This evening the tram conductor announced that someone at the station pushed the buttons again. I’m starting to question this excuse. Two time in a row that someone pushed this said button? Who’s watching the button at the tram station?

A third Roosevelt Island Tipster added another incident:

It was Monday night, April 1, last week. I was coming back from dinner in the city and grabbed the tram. The time was about 10:30-ish to 11pm. We left the Manhattan side of the tram, and just past 1st Ave, the tram suddenly jerked to a stop and started swinging back & forth.

The Tram operator immediately said, "Everyone please remain in your places and remain still until we continue." Then, I heard him call the station, and he said, "Hey, did anyone over there hit the emergency stop button?" The guy at one of the stations (not sure if it was on the city side or the Island side) responded, "No, why?" The tram operator said, "Cause we stopped for no reason."

The station guy said, "Really? No, no one one that I know of." After about 5 minutes, the tram started again and we continued to the island without incident. That's all I know.

Received these additional comments:

• It happened again yesterday {Wednesday}! My daughter said the tram stopped midair and was shaking with a packed cabin and resumed after a few minutes.
• swaying is half the fun...you can see tourists scream.
• I think the greater question is why is a passenger tripping the emergency stop button from the ground. That person needs to be found and given a citation and fine, or worse. Not cool.

I asked RIOC President Susan Rosenthal

... Why is there an emergency stop button at Manhattan Tram Station that can be pushed by passengers?

According to Ms Rosenthal:

Explanation from POMA

Per ANSI B77.1-2011, section 2.2.9, “All automatic and manual stop and shutdown devices shall be of the manually reset type”, and, “manual control devices shall be installed at all conductor and operator work positions, control rooms, machine rooms, and out-of-doors in proximity to all loading and unloading areas.” The reference to “out-of-doors” is the requirement to have these switched located outside of the doors in the public areas. If the switches were to be removed, the State of NY would consider this a violation of the code and would shut the tram down.

I followed up?

Is there any way to cover or protect the button so unauthorized persons are not able to activate the emergency stop?

Ms Rosenthal replied:

We’ll look into that