Now that the Roosevelt Island Tram has become a cheap tourist attraction, Roosevelt Islanders have lost access as visitors stack up in long lines at both stations.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Don’t blame the tourists, please.
They’re just looking for the experience Roosevelt Islanders enjoyed for decades, the thrill of gliding over the East River with expansive views in all directions. And for next to nothing.
Early in the Haynes administration at RIOC, it committed to “marketing and branding” Roosevelt Island. Relatively clueless about everything else, it set the Tram up as an attraction. Soon, that meant frequently hobbling its foundational task of getting Roosevelt Islanders easily to and from Midtown.
Tourist crowding increased as an issue to the point where, today, residents – especially physically challenged residents – are shut out of the cabins. Long delays spent standing in tourist-filled lines are common.
It will worsen this weekend as tourists flood in for New Year’s celebrations.
Then, there’s this…
Although it created all the problems with a misguided grab for uninformed tourists, RIOC refuses any and all solutions.
The net result is cramped cabins that can’t be pleasant for anyone. Some aggressive visitors push and shove to get the best views and feed even more images into TikTok, Instagram and X.
But Leitner-POMA adds to the frustrations with utter indifference to passenger safety and courtesy.
A recent switch to friendly greetings and advising passengers to “Hold on” while respecting seating needs for elderly and physically challenged riders soon devolved into silence and surliness.
On a ride this week, a scowling veteran Tram operator slumped on his stool as no less than five bicycles rolled onboard. Leaned together, they took up a large space in the cabin.
And while we wondered why equipment fully capable of transporting their owners – who paid a single fare, like the rest of us, but got triple the space – was allowed on, the sullen operator lifted the cabin skyward, leaving a dozen or more behind on the platform.
This will not change until RIOC does.
Air Doesn’t Have an Address
The Roosevelt Island Steam Plant fight has reached a new stage: DOB has agreed to a site walkthrough, ArchRI says it is bringing independent engineers and architects, and four elected officials have formally asked RIOC to create a Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the project.
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