Maybe the worst transit month in Roosevelt Island history started with the MTA’s canceling weekend subway services all month. It worsened when RIOC failed to step up support, then approved Tram shutdowns when needs were greatest. But the community struggled through, almost alone. This should never happen again.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Let’s be clear, Roosevelt Islanders had already grown used to being abandoned by RIOC and the MTA, but this was a showstopper. The MTA will never change, but fresh, interim management at RIOC gave locals some hope.
How February Became the Worst Transit Month
The F Train track fixing project was already a challenge. Infrequent shuttle replacement trains and erratic connections left many with hours added to their commutes. Despite dodging transparency, the RIOC/Leitner-POMO duo failed to ease concerns about frightening Tram cabin episodes.
At State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright’s request, the Department of Labor got involved in the safety issues and, months later, still is. All the while, RIOC has been silent, echoing the bunker mode of prior administrations.
And all that says nothing about the tourist-driven Tram cabin crowding episodes leaving many community members stranded… with scant relief from RIOC.
And then came February.
A Month That Could Have Gone a Lot of Ways
When the MTA canceled, with little warning, all weekend F Train shuttles, it also set up a system of shuttle buses to and from Queens Plaza. While helpful for some, these were not what many others needed.
The challenge for some with physical restrictions was too much, the risk of being stuck in subway hell without help, too risky. No matter how many buses lined up in front of the inactive subway station.
The need for safe transportation to and from Manhattan was clear as was RIOC’s opportunity to step up, to show they were as keen on helping the community as they were on protecting their jobs. But the state agency failed in a major way.
Essentially, its main message amounted to directing Roosevelt Islanders elsewhere – to the ferry, to the Q102, to the MTA Queens shuttle…
Yes, it continued its 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. Red Bus shuttles to an from 2nd Avenue, but they were inadequate before and more so now. As tourist traffic increased with spring break swelling interest and subway shutdowns doubling or tripling it, RIOC sat on its hands.
Budget woes hit Roosevelt Islanders…
One thing hamstringing RIOC’s capabilities is a years-long failure to update the Red Bus fleet. Today, it can’t even meet its own defined need for morning rush hours, but instead of working around a crisis it created, RIOC did nothing.
It’s not as if alternatives did not exist. Every day, hired out shuttles carry Roosevelt Islanders to and from worksites in the city. Weekends, the Octagon sets up shuttles taking their residents to and from the Tram and subway.
But RIOC could not figure it out. It refused to shell out money for transit services residents needed while coughing up around $40,000 per month – not a misprint – for its exiled executives. You know, the ones who got it into the transit/budget mess to begin with.
How the Worst Transit Month Played Out
The sad and most widely ignored part of this is that a lot of Roosevelt Islanders stayed home, if they could. That’s 100% on RIOC. It recognizes a need with weekly shoppers buses, but pretends it doesn’t exist otherwise.
Others struggled with packed Tram cabins with few, if any, wearing face masks in the season for COVID, flus and colds. RIOC, for its part, did next to nothing. It could not persuade Leitner-POMA to get its operators to even advise passengers to hold on in the soon to be shaky cabins with many first time riders. And you can forget about their intervening with reserved seating.
Frail, dependent on canes or walkers – you were on your own.
Then, they made it worse.
Tram “Emergency Repairs…”
During the last, critical week in February, Leitner-POMA – with RIOC’s wimpy compliance – “scheduled” a four day single-cabin shutdown for what it called “emergency” work. First, if it was a real emergency, why did repairs wait until the timing was best for Leitner-POMA?
Exactly, what was the emergency? Why were the cabins running at full capacity while the repairs were scheduled? What was broken and how did it affect Tram safety?
Neither RIOC nor Leitner-POMA said anything.
After two days of intense complaints during the partial shutdown, RIOC’s Public Safety Department belatedly increased manpower at the Tram. Deputy Chief Anthony Amorosa led a team that kept crowds controlled with reduced shoving and pushing. And a photo caught Amorosa gently aiding an older couple in need of reserved seating.
But where were they before that? How many in need were stranded or forced to stressfully fend for themselves?
Finally…
You think, “This can’t happen again,” but honestly, it probably will. The MTA and Leitner-POMA are as cutoff from Roosevelt Islanders as they are unchastened. That’s unchanged.
And RIOC, the single resource that can provide actual help, is also unchanged. Self-protection is the rule, not service to the community. It’ll take major changes and probably a new governor before the Roosevelt Island community can expect anything better.
As it happened in February 2024, the worst transit month, Roosevelt Islanders adapted, aware they were pretty much on their own when it hit the fan. At least, we had that.
What the Thermostat Forgot
I didn’t write this because I like the sound of my own radiator—not that it makes any. I wrote it because what’s happening at Roosevelt Landings isn’t just a story about heat or bills or broken promises. It’s about what gets lost in the fine print when no one shows up to remember. It’s about how silence seeps into walls the same way cold does—slowly, then all at once.
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