On Short Notice, "State Mandated Training" for All Tram Workers

Sunday, from 6:00 until 10:00 a.m., “state mandated training” will reduce Tram services, RIOC announced, late yesterday. The state agency that always gets it right did not say whether this was planned or a reaction to recent incidents.

by David Stone

The Roosevelt Island Daily News

“Please be advised that Tram service will be affected the morning of Sunday, October 15th from 6AM to 10AM to accommodate a state mandated training session for all Tram operators and maintenance personnel,” RIOC advised.

It was peculiar, not only because “Team RIOC” has not publicly addressed recent, frightening incidents at the Tram. And also because the “operators and maintenance personnel” are not RIOC employees. They work for POMA, which runs the Tram under contract.

They also do not indicate which state entity mandated the training. RIOC is a state agency that owns the Tram. If it wasn’t them, who was it and why?

In case you missed it…

On Wednesday evening, a cabin rocked out of control but was not taken out of service. Instead, It took off across the East River while still rocking. Neither RIOC nor POMA publicly addressed the incident.

Will the State Mandated Training Address the Above or Something Else?

At this time, The Roosevelt Island Daily News strongly suggests avoiding Tram rides whenever possible. The safety issues are extreme, and neither RIOC nor operator POMA has made any effort to explain what’s going wrong or how they will fix it.

The “safety drills” included in Sunday morning’s training involved actions taken after an incident, not prevention.

“In addition to the greater-than-normal amounts of Tram personnel, during the training, you will also notice higher noise volumes on and around the Roosevelt Island station, including from the evac braking system which will be engaged during safety drills.”