Tram's Likely Return Date: Late August
RIOC Board Also Votes First Steps To a $15 Million Tram Renewal
with a Eight-Month Rebuild in 2008

Consultants and contractors tell the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) that it will take "ten to twelve weeks" – possibly until late August – to get the Tramway back into service, the State agency said in a Thursday afternoon press conference at the Island station.

But, said Herb Berman, it will come as the first step in a full modernization, roughly estimated to cost $15 million, and roughly expected to take until 2009.

The RIOC Board of Directors voted unanimously later on Thursday to commit $370,000 to $500,000 for the immediate work required to get the system back in service, and voted unanimously to undertake the first steps toward the larger renovation. Presuming the project schedule goes as presented to the RIOC Board, the Tramway will be out of service from April, 2008 through December, 2008, for the replacement of most of its parts other than its towers.

For now, Berman said that the immediate plan includes "repairing and installing a second SCR [silicon-controlled rectifier] drive, and calls for replacing the auxiliary diesel-powered system with a brand-new auxiliary power unit. What’s more, the MG [motor-generator] set that was sent to Connecticut for repair earlier this year will be back on site sometime this summer and available as a spare motor."

Berman made it clear RIOC intends to get the Tram back into service and keep it running: "We have never wavered in our commitment to reopen the Tram once we are convinced, and outside experts are convinced, that it can operate safely and efficiently." When asked by a Daily News reporter if the Tram isn’t overdue for the scrap heap [his exact words were inaudible], Berman responded, "No, I see no reason to shut the Tram down. The Tram is one of the most reliable forms of transportation in the City of New York. Over a 30-year period, we’ve never had an accident; nobody has been injured as a consequence of the Tram. Our reliability records are outstanding. It’s unfortunate, what happened, but the bottom line is that it taught us what has to be done to make it even more reliable and I think it would be a major mistake to shut the Tram down. I think Roosevelt Island deserves it, the residents deserve it, and I think New York enjoys it, and by all means we should continue it."

Berman said the "modernization will ensure that the Tram will continue to operate for decades to come." He added, "The State has been very supportive and has commited the money we need to overhaul the Tram."

Jim Fletcher of Parametrix, RIOC’s ropeway systems consultant, told the press that SCR systems develop occasional glitches that routinely have to be reset. In explaining the April 18 failure, he said, "These electronics control when the electricity comes into the drive, and in which direction it comes from. There was a malfunction in one of the [circuit] cards that didn’t allow the electricity to come in at the right time. We call that crossfiring." He said testing revealed a loose wire, with insulation worn away, which caused the circuit to misfire and shut down the system.

Speaking with The WIRE after the press conference, Fletcher said that the problem is very likely to be related to the point in the Tram’s travel where the motor stops consuming electricity, and starts generating it. One point where that occurs is immediately after the cabins have passed the middle tower and both are then going "downhill." He also told The WIRE that previous needs for SCR resets can be seen as a problem needing investigation, "hindsight being 20-20." In the future, he said, system protocols may allow the first reset to pass, but a second within a month might become cause for a visit by a specialist.

Fletcher said the rescue-basket system will still be used in an emergency evacuation, but said that increased redundancy and reliability in the main systems will make it far less likely to be used than in the past. "We will also look at these newer techniques which actually go out and winch the cabins back to the terminals, one at a time." That will become possible, he said, because the brakes will no longer be on the carriage – the section of the hanger arm that runs on the track rope – but will instead be in the motor room, acting on the bull wheels (giant pulleys) instead of on the haul cable or track cable. "It’s been shown that having the brakes on the carriages is less safe than not having them," he said.

"A second option is to have a higher, wider, much improved basket-rescue system," Fletcher said, adding, "I think a lot was learned in little techniques that will allow us to have a much better system."

Later, in describing the renovation plan to the RIOC Board, Fletcher said that speaking of the Roosevelt Island Tramway as "30 years old" is misleading. He said that, because of hard daily use, the system here works far harder than a ski-resort system that runs for 100 days with far fewer trips. "This Tram is therefore more like 90 years old," he said, adding, "It’s still safe, but it’s starting to wear down."

The preliminary schedule for the longer-term renovation calls for initial engineering to be finished in September, with changes to the two Tramway stations planned by January of 2007. That’s followed by a series of contract-letting steps, further design, and general preparation. Islanders would say goodbye to the existing Tram in April of 2008, and construction would then take through November of that year, with testing and "commissioning" requiring the balance of the year. Tram service would resume, on the schedule presented, in January, 2009.

Fletcher said the Tramway renovation goals are centered around four items:

• Reliability: He said a new system will have more redundancy and less downtime, including more built-in diagnostics to track problems.

• Safety: A more modern system will be easier to troubleshoot, he said.

• Increased efficiency: More built-in assistance in maintaining the system, and a more stingy use of electricity, which he described as "one of the biggest operating costs."

• Enhanced passenger comfort: Heating and ventilating systems, "dynamic messaging," and other amenities.