Twenty-five years after service began on the Roosevelt Island Tramway, the successor to the company that built the Tram has returned to run the system.

American Tramways Inc. of Watertown, N.Y., a unit of the Doppelmayr group of Austria, took over the Tram this week.  Until 1996, American Tramways was part of Von Roll, a large industrial corporation based in Zurich, Switzerland, which constructed the Tramway.  Red Blomer, the president of American Tramways, who first worked on the Island in 1987, said, "It's a Von Roll machine, what can I say? It'll run forever.  They were just lucky 25 years ago that they bought the best."

American Tramways was one of four companies that submitted bids to operate the Tram after the previous operator, Inte-Fac Corp., a local company, terminated its month-to-month agreement with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. in April in an effort to increase the revenue associated with its cost-plus contract.  Inte-Fac had managed the Tram since April 1991.

RIOC moved quickly to find an operator after persuading Inte-Fac to extend its agreement until the end of July.  On July 12, RIOC's Board of Directors voted to award American Tramways a five-year contract, with a five-year renewal option.  Its bid, $1.9 million for the first year, was slightly less than the offers from two other bidders, Ropeway Engineering and Inte-Fac, but nearly $200,000 more than the low bidder, American Ropeway.

Patrick Siconolfi, RIOC's chief financial officer, said the bid covers wages, benefits, management and engineering services, but not the costs of major repairs, power, insurance and other expenses, which are RIOC's responsibility.

Siconolfi said:  "American Tramways appeared to the selection committee to be the most experienced by far.  Safety was the primary concern for the selection committee, price was secondary."  Siconolfi, Robert Antonek, RIOC's Vice President, and two members of RIOC's professional staff, Vincent Kopicki, Director of  Engineering, and Kenneth Leitner, General Counsel, were on the selection committee.

Blomer said that Doppelmayr, which bought the aerial transportation segment of Von Roll's business in 1996, has been building 100 systems a year.  It is a private, family-owned company, founded in Wolfurt, Austria, in 1892.  It employs about 1,100 people and has production and sales offices in more than 45 countries, and systems in 68.  According to the company's website, there were 8,280 Doppelmayr installations worldwide, mostly ski lifts, as of December 2000; its reversible aerial Tramways numbered 204.

Until recently, Blomer said, Doppelmayr had not generally been interested in operations and maintenance.  He said American Tramways had previously declined to bid on the contract for Roosevelt Island.  But this time around, he said, the bid specifications happened to coincide with an expansion in Doppelmayr's interest to include operations and maintenance, and not simply construction.

Blomer said the company decided to get involved after he met in New York with Michael Doppelmayr, the Managing Partner.  Doppelmayr, he said, gave him the green light to pursue the Roosevelt Island contract.  American Tramways, which provides engineering, parts and other services for all of North America, had previously been involved in shorter-lived management ventures involving Doppelmayr systems at a ski resort in Idaho, and in Las Vegas, where the company's "Cable Liner" links several casinos.

The Roosevelt Island venture appears to fit in with the parent company's expressed desire to diversify beyond the alpine-skiing business, which is subject to many variables, including the weather and the popularity of the sport.

Blomer said the Roosevelt Island Tramway is in good condition and that the maintenance crew here has been doing an efficient job in keeping the Tram running 365 days a year.  American Tramways, working with Von Roll and Doppelmayr over the years, has been involved in maintenance projects on the Island system since 1981, he said, doing inspections, changing ropes, upgrading the brakes and installing new bearings, for example.

Both Blomer and Siconolfi said, however, that major work needs to be done, to replace the 38-ton haul rope and rebuild the carriage assemblies that connect the cabins to the ropes.  Siconolfi put the cost of that work at about $300,000 and said the haul rope would have to be imported from Europe.

"It runs every day, which means it wears out every day, so you need to do a little maintenance every day," Blomer said.  "Every once in a while you need to change the tires on the car."  He said the haul rope had lasted six years, one to two years longer than the normal span.

A shutdown will be required to accomplish the major work, which Blomer said would take about three weeks, probably in November.  During this time, an extensive inspection will be done, covering the Tramway's mechanical, electrical and hydraulic systems, he said.

Siconolfi said that the Tram now has a ridership of about 933,000 passengers per year, and revenue of about $1.4 million.  With the addition of residents from the first two buildings of Southtown, he said, Tram revenue is estimated to increase $206,000 per year in RIOC's 2003-04 fiscal year.  But the added revenue from Southtown, he said, will still fall far short of the Tram's current projected deficit of $1.7 million per year.  Of that amount, $977,000 is a direct loss in the operating budget, he said.

It was this loss that prompted the RIOC board to consider curtailing the Tram's hours of service and to ask residents' opinions.  The ridership figures that Siconolfi presented at the July 12 RIOC meeting - which showed that 81,000 riders per year were using the 10:00 p.m to 2:00 a.m. shift (3:30 a.m. weekends)  - were based on a 12-month collection of hard data on Tram usage, from the first six months of 2000 and the first six months of 2001, as compiled by the Tram attendants.

The cabin attendants were also the source of a sample of the ridership of elderly and disabled riders, which Siconolfi said was carried out in a period of about two weeks, in June, prior to the July 12 RIOC board meeting.  This data was compiled on the basis of "mobility-related observations to determine whether riders were elderly or were in wheelchairs or had other disabilities," he said.

Siconolfi said that the Tram accounts for the largest part of Roosevelt Island's operating deficit.  The Tram deficiency was recorded as $662,233 in the year ended March 31, 2000.  But that amount was calculated only on operating results, Siconolfi said.  Under the rules imposed by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, RIOC must move, within the next two years, to a standard that accounts for capital assets, including infrastructure, and depreciation expenses.

It is under these standards that the Tram deficit assumes its full dimension.  Who covers  the deficit?  Siconolfi said that the money to subsidize the Tram is derived from the general revenue of the Corporation - basically from ground rents.  Since less than one percent of RIOC's general revenue is derived from the four original developments of Roosevelt Island - Rivercross, Eastwood, Island House and Westview - the bulk of the deficit is covered by the renters who live in Manhattan Park, who are paying $3 million in ground rent in 2001, and by other sources of unrestricted income, such as Motorgate.  (The housing companies that operate the other buildings do contribute separately to the Public Safety Department's budget.)

Siconolfi said that RIOC, which has an annual operating budget of about $10 million (and a total budget of approximately $13 million, including capital accounts) has run a small surplus for the past two years, not including a one-time payment to RIOC from the City, to compensate for damage associated with the construction of a water tunnel under the Island.

Siconolfi said that the annual payment to American Tramways can be adjusted according to Tramway usage, and Blomer noted that factors such as inflation were built into the succeeding years of the contract.  RIOC President Robert Ryan pointed out, too, that it would be misleading to characterize a possible shortening of service as eliminating the Tram's third shift.  That shift is devoted now, in large part, to maintenance work that continues until the Tram resumes its daily circuits over the East River at 6:00 a.m.  The work will continue.  Shortening the hours of operation could, however, save money in terms of overtime, Ryan said.

Given the state of the budget, Siconolfi said, the decision as to the hours of Tram operation is essentially a policy matter.  In other words, the Tram deficit in itself has not caused the Island to incur an overall loss; the question, rather, is a matter of spending priorities.

Blomer said that the current level of Tram staffing, about two dozen employees, and the possible need for any additional personnel, was under review, along with other aspects of the operation.

The current employees, of course, are among the Tram's staunchest backers.  On Thursday morning, the night after a RIRA Town Meeting to support the Tram, they were giving riders the opportunity to sign petitions seeking to preserve the Tram's late-night schedule.