“The highest priority is the NTSB investigation,” says Roosevelt Islander Frank Farance. “Our Federal reps can help. That’s common sense, especially important is it appears these ‘near misses’ are not properly investigated and safety issues are not addressed.”
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
A Common Sense Approach
There have dozens of incidents of sudden braking and Tram cabin swaying. But after a year, Leitner-POMA, the designer and operator of the Roosevelt Island Tram, has no solution. Frank Farance, an engineer by vocation, finally stepped in.
“It appears that the Tram uses Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which means sensors, actuators, controllers and other devices talk to each other over the ‘internet.'” But, Farance adds, “it’s a ‘private’ internet, a closed system not accessible on the web.
“It’s possible that other devices are using the same frequencies because they have Wi-Fi.”
Think: 110,000 daily cars/trucks on the Queensboro Bridge, plus the 175,000 daily cars on the FDR Drive. Add drivers and passengers, and you have 600,000 potential Wi-Fi users. “Malicious public users,” Farance cautions, “can cause problems, too.”
The frequent disruptions are recent. Some suspect that wireless communications within the Congestion Pricing System may be at least partly to blame.
Conflicts are as inevitable as they are brief. It only takes a second of disruption because of how the Tram’s communications are designed.
About the Sudden Braking and Swinging Cabins
Farance makes an important point about the immediate issue. Passengers are thrown against each other during sudden braking incidents. Some passengers even fall.
“I’ve worked on real-time life-critical transportation systems,” he notes. “Our team computerized the train control system for Penn Station and approaches (Newark, Woodside, Rye) for Amtrak, LIRR, and NJ Transit. Communication failures are always a design issue.
“However, the person who decided ‘let’s screech to a halt if there’s a blip in network communications’ has a bad design because of the reaction the tram system takes. For example, there could be an operator warning with a 10-second timer. That gives the operator enough time to tell the passengers ‘Hold on to the strap hangers, the tram will be stopping abruptly.’ The deceleration could be less – only if there is a communication failure and there are no other anomalies. Of course, this would require ballistic/mechanics modeling, planning, training, and safety review.”
Then, he ruefully adds: “It appears there has been little thought to tramway communications, which might work well in an unpopulated Alps scenario, but not a densely packed urban zone with major roadways adjacent to the route.”
The Expertise Vacuum
When I discussed preparing this article with Farance, we acknowledged an issue so obvious that it gets overlooked. After relating that RIOC has suggested that the main problem is aging equipment that must be replaced, the lack of preventive maintenance over the years splashed through as a major cause.
“Or corrective maintenance,” Farance added.
Well-functioning operations have both as part of their primary business. Smart companies watch and plan for obsolescence and wear. The apparent lack of diligence from POMA should be enough to send RIOC scurrying for alternatives. It may be lost on RIOC, but a full cabin means 40,000 pounds being hauled high the East River. Taking that for granted fuels the potential for tragedy.
Another insufficiently considered factor is the absence of collateral experience. That is, while POMA has broad experience with trams, it has nothing else like the urban demands of Roosevelt Island. That can easily explain failures at anticipating and correcting communications problems.
That fact is accentuated by the Department of Labor’s equal lack of experience. DOL jumped in and forced POMA and RIOC to start taking tram safety seriously. However, it lacks experience with urban trams. It has virtually no experience beyond this. There just aren’t any others within the state’s borders.
“We’ve lived with this for almost five decades,” Farance notes. “No one can explain why this is the right regulatory agency with the right expertise.”
Common Sense Solutions
Farance advocates a common sense approach that has eluded RIOC so far.
SUGGESTION #1: HAVE NTSB INVESTIGATE THE SUDDEN STOPS:
“The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigates all kinds of transportation accidents. They have all the skills, the physics, the ballistics, the engineering, the material science, the passenger modeling, the necessary regulatory frameworks. Ask the NTSB to:”
- Investigate the cause of these abrupt stops and issue an explanatory report of contributing factors and causes (similar to accident investigations).
- Investigate the design, worker training, and necessary regulation for safe operation.
- Recommend any design, training, operation, regulation, etc. changes.
- Recommend an appropriate regulatory agency and regulatory framework to inspect, review, and regulate the Roosevelt Island Tram.
While Senators Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand are hopeless on local issues, State Senator Liz Krueger immediately stepped up. He office will try getting Congressman Jerry Nadler on the case.
And OSHA Too
“Just from the workers’ perspective (not the riders), this is an unsafe workplace as you can have flying objects (like people) crushing you because of a sudden communications failure with an abrupt stop. This fails the OSHA safety priorities,” Farance points out.
Time for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Agency to play a role.
Common Sense and the Obvious
Some final thoughts from Farance that shouldn’t be necessary but are:
- City and State legislators should implement and enforce any/all suggestions.
- Switch the infrastructure to use a different band where RIOC can license the frequencies. This might require different antennae, interfaces, and mounting. Another option is to use power-line internet (as it’s done over high voltage wiring in rural areas), which allows you to use the the haul or track cables as a communications medium.
- Regularly analyze the radio network and communications. Investigate outages. If they need help, call the NTSB for pointers.
Finally…
Common sense in pursuit of public safety should prevail, but it hasn’t here. After more than a year, the best RIOC, POMA and the DOL can come up with is drastically reducing services.
That doesn’t solve the problems, it just slows them down. At the same time, it lays the total burden on residents who rely on the Tram for basic transportation needs. RIOC disrupted that, breaking the public trust by converting it into a minor league Disney World attraction. That’s led to vast inconvenience and budget busting costs.
Our state legislators should shake RIOC’s cage. They might have to drag Governor Hochul along. This should continue until some semblance of a reality adjustment gets in place. The lack of imagination at the local level is stunning. The leadership spilling down river from Albany is sorely lacking.
Priced Out of the Air We Breathe
It used to be you could sit by the window and breathe in a little peace. Now, that costs extra—and someone’s cashing in.
