Suitably Flip

Trams Stuck Suspended Over East River, Spiderman Unavailable

Both cars of the Roosevelt Island Tramway have been stranded between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island since 5:00 this afternoon after a mechanical malfunction caused the cable system to lose power.

One of the trams, carrying dozens of people, is left suspended 250 feet above the East River.  Passengers and Tramway officials on board are in contact with newsrooms and the NYPD via cell phone and appear to be maintaining their sanity.  While the passengers appear to be in no immediate danger, they are without food, diapers, and plumbing.

As of 10:15 pm, a rescue basket was en route to try to extract the 72 stranded passengers from the two trams.  Sadly, the one New Yorker with Roosevelt Island Tramway rescue experience is unavailable, having recently relocated to Cleveland.

Update 10:45 pm:  A rescue basket (being manually cranked across the cable) has reached one of the trams and has made a delivery of baby formula, food, water, and blankets.  Judging from the grainy, flashing video footage, a ladder has been lowered into the tram, but no one has climbed up or down.

Update 11:20 pm:  The first cage full of passengers, including 7 children and 5 adults, has been successfully offloaded on Roosevelt Island.  It's a slow process (authorities are estimating another 3-6 hours), but it appears to be just a matter of time until all the passengers are back on terra firma.  Knock on wood, it looks like a happy ending to a wretched experience.

Update 11:45 pm:  Mayor Bloomberg has held a brief press conference, confirming it was a power failure that led to the malfunction of both the primary system and the backup generator.  He noted the advanced age of the system and stated the trams would be grounded until the cause of the malfunction can be sorted out.

Update 12:15 am:  Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Governor Pataki are holding a news conference, but they don't seem to have anything newsworthy to say, because the local coverage quickly switched away from them to interview offloaded passengers.  A boy named Zachary reports having been annoyed by the ordeal, but is "happy [he] experienced it" and is very excited to go to school tomorrow.  His mother reports no one got sick on her tram and that the passengers all managed to remain calm.

Update 12:20 am:  A second basket full of passengers has been offloaded.  Meanwhile, attempts to restore power to the trams continue to fail.  These people have now been stranded for more than 7 hours, having expected a 5 minute ride.  Three things seem certain: 1) The call of nature must at some point have become an imperative; 2) Some of the passengers must have had picture phones; 3) If there's even one openable window on those trams, we should expect some amusing pictures to be forthcoming thanks to 1 and 2.

Update 7:00 am:  All 69 passengers were safely extracted, the final group touching down at around 4:30 this morning.  Former Republican Congressman Rick Lazio, whose wife and daughter were on board one of the trams, was critical of the antiquated system.

"I think the information flow has been pretty abysmal," said Mr. Lazio, in an interview from his Manhattan apartment about 10 p.m. "One of the problems is that the official communication has been extremely wanting, so people would get information from different sources, like cellphones."

"It's difficult for me to understand when you have a primary means of transportation over to an island, you don't have a backup plan in terms of retrieving the people who are caught in a situation like this," Mr. Lazio said.

FYI: The tramway is operated by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., a quasi-private New York State "public benefit corporation" much like the MTA or the power authorities.  According to the RIOC website, the 30-year-old tram was intended to serve only as a temporary measure until the subway was completed (the Roosevelt Island Q-line station opened in 1989).

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Trams Stuck Suspended Over East River, Spiderman Unavailable

Both cars of the Roosevelt Island Tramway have been stranded between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island since 5:00 this afternoon after a mechanical malfunction caused the cable system to lose power.

One of the trams, carrying dozens of people, is left suspended 250 feet above the East River.  Passengers and Tramway officials on board are in contact with newsrooms and the NYPD via cell phone and appear to be maintaining their sanity.  While the passengers appear to be in no immediate danger, they are without food, diapers, and plumbing.

As of 10:15 pm, a rescue basket was en route to try to extract the 72 stranded passengers from the two trams.  Sadly, the one New Yorker with Roosevelt Island Tramway rescue experience is unavailable, having recently relocated to Cleveland.

Update 10:45 pm:  A rescue basket (being manually cranked across the cable) has reached one of the trams and has made a delivery of baby formula, food, water, and blankets.  Judging from the grainy, flashing video footage, a ladder has been lowered into the tram, but no one has climbed up or down.

Update 11:20 pm:  The first cage full of passengers, including 7 children and 5 adults, has been successfully offloaded on Roosevelt Island.  It's a slow process (authorities are estimating another 3-6 hours), but it appears to be just a matter of time until all the passengers are back on terra firma.  Knock on wood, it looks like a happy ending to a wretched experience.

Update 11:45 pm:  Mayor Bloomberg has held a brief press conference, confirming it was a power failure that led to the malfunction of both the primary system and the backup generator.  He noted the advanced age of the system and stated the trams would be grounded until the cause of the malfunction can be sorted out.

Update 12:15 am:  Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Governor Pataki are holding a news conference, but they don't seem to have anything newsworthy to say, because the local coverage quickly switched away from them to interview offloaded passengers.  A boy named Zachary reports having been annoyed by the ordeal, but is "happy [he] experienced it" and is very excited to go to school tomorrow.  His mother reports no one got sick on her tram and that the passengers all managed to remain calm.

Update 12:20 am:  A second basket full of passengers has been offloaded.  Meanwhile, attempts to restore power to the trams continue to fail.  These people have now been stranded for more than 7 hours, having expected a 5 minute ride.  Three things seem certain: 1) The call of nature must at some point have become an imperative; 2) Some of the passengers must have had picture phones; 3) If there's even one openable window on those trams, we should expect some amusing pictures to be forthcoming thanks to 1 and 2.

Update 7:00 am:  All 69 passengers were safely extracted, the final group touching down at around 4:30 this morning.  Former Republican Congressman Rick Lazio, whose wife and daughter were on board one of the trams, was critical of the antiquated system.

"I think the information flow has been pretty abysmal," said Mr. Lazio, in an interview from his Manhattan apartment about 10 p.m. "One of the problems is that the official communication has been extremely wanting, so people would get information from different sources, like cellphones."

"It's difficult for me to understand when you have a primary means of transportation over to an island, you don't have a backup plan in terms of retrieving the people who are caught in a situation like this," Mr. Lazio said.

FYI: The tramway is operated by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., a quasi-private New York State "public benefit corporation" much like the MTA or the power authorities.  According to the RIOC website, the 30-year-old tram was intended to serve only as a temporary measure until the subway was completed (the Roosevelt Island Q-line station opened in 1989).