Roosevelt Island Tram Swing Dampeners Installed To Reduce Cabin Rocking Back And Forth After Sudden Stop - It Appears To Be Working, Watch Video From RIOC Meeting Describing How Tram Cabin Swing Dampener Works

In order to reduce the back and forth swinging of the Roosevelt Island Tram cabins after a sudden stop,  the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) announced February 26 that Poma, operator of the Tram: 

... installed the new swing dampeners on both the North and South Cabins. You can see the new blue dampeners on the outside of both ends of the cabin (pictured below)....

Image From RIOC

The Tram swing dampeners appear to be working. A Roosevelt Island Tram Rider Tipster shared this video and reported this morning:

Took the Tram at 8:10 this morning. Barely off the platform, it dipped and started swinging. It lasted approximately 1 minute before ascent resumed "normally". I started filming halfway through. The Tram Operator was quite good, asked people not to panic and give it a minute.

During the March 7 RIOC Real Estate Development Advisory Committee meeting, RIOC Acting Chief Operating Officer Mary Cunneen and interim co-leader of the leadership team Gerrald Ellis described how the Tram cabin swing dampener works.

RIOC has stated that a disruption in the wi-fi communications system between the Tram Cabin and station is the cause of the sudden Tram stoppage resulting in the cabin swinging back and forth. The cause of the communications disruption has been under investigation for several months but has not yet been found.

Here's some examples of the swinging Roosevelt Island Tram.

November 2023 

October 2023

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September 2023. 

and from April 2019.

During the November 14, 2023 RIOC Board of Directors meeting, POMA's Roosevelt Island Tram Head Of Operations Armando Cordova addressed safety concerns caused by the Tram's sudden stops and swinging back and forth.