“Put simply, we are paying for a service that we’re not receiving,” a RIOC executive told The Daily, concerning Leitner-POMA. The Colorado-based company operates the Roosevelt Island Tramway under contract with RIOC. Complaints piled up about safety, courtesy and reliability in recent months with the state agency, perhaps unfairly, taking the heat.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
The Leitner-POMA Problems
It happened again this week. It happens almost every time I use the Tram lately.
On Monday, early afternoon, after climbing up the steps at the 2nd Avenue Tram Plaza, I found a crowd waiting as the single operating cabin came in. It was mostly tourists, of course, as it usually is, and excited, they raced in as soon as the doors opened.
The reserved seating for disabled and older adults quickly filled, but behind the rush came two women in need and deserving of seating. One pushed a fully loaded shopping cart. They moved through the packed cabin within a foot or two of Leitner-POMA‘s operator, who was apparently stricken mute, deaf and blind.
Because there was no other choice in my world, I stepped in front and asked two young women to vacate their seats, explaining that they were reserved. (The sign is so low that, once anyone takes a seat, you can’t see it anymore.)
I’m happy to say, the two women gave up their window seats and the crowd moved aside, letting the older women sit for the ride.
This would be a happy story if not for the fact that helping out with appropriate Tram seating is not my job. It’s Leitner-POMA’s, and they stink at it. Now, as with the cabin swinging incidents, indifference to paying passengers raises significant concerns.
And RIOC‘s also pissed about it.
The Unseen Issue
“We’ve escalated this within POMA to everyone up to and including their CEO,” RIOC Deputy Counsel Gerrald Ellis tells The Daily, about crowd control on the platforms.
What most don’t realize is that, as part of their contract, RIOC pays for station managers. That job is a relic from the old days when the state’s own employees sold tokens from still-standing booths.
The individual in the booth is responsible for controlling crowds and orderly boarding, but they are not doing that. At least one was observed napping on the job.
Too often, RIOC has dispatched Public Safety Officers as a last resort. This is unfair to RIOC and Roosevelt Islanders on several levels.
First, residents fund the PSOs displaced from other tasks, and second, RIOC winds up taking the flack when crowding devolves into chaos. To an extent, that’s okay because ultimately, RIOC is responsible. But, although they are paying Leitner-POMA for the work, prior weak management has allowed an unacceptable slackness from the operators.
Finally…
That’s changing.
The new, interim management team at RIOC has had enough. They’re as pissed off about platform crowding and cabin misconduct as residents are.
“This also impacts our upcoming contract negotiations with POMA,” a RIOC official notes.
Enough voices have been raised that, maybe, a trend back towards a safe, courteous and reliable Tramway may be coming.
AVAC: Where the Pipe Curves
This is the final installment in my notes from the December 2nd, Operations Advisory Committee meeting, following “An Emergency, Apparently” and “Rust Is Funny Until It Isn’t”.
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