roosevelt island tram ordeal...

[dgmodel]

this is insane, i think id flip out if i was stuck in there all these hours... anyone else here following this on the news???

[dgmodel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/nyregion/19roosevelt.html?hp&ex=1145419200&en=d38b90fc6b5fe6c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Power Failures Leave Tram Passengers Hanging for Hours

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By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Published: April 19, 2006

A four-minute trip on the Roosevelt Island Tramway turned into a harrowing ordeal that lasted hours last night as a series of power failures left more than 70 passengers suspended hundreds of feet in the air.

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Richard Perry/The New York Times

The Roosevelt Island Tramway lost power and stranded passengers over the East River for hours.

Around 9:30 p.m., after officials had tried and failed to restore power, and with options running out, emergency workers scrambled to prepare for a daring midair rescue. The ordeal began shortly before 5 p.m. when the power gave out, leaving two tram cars motionless on cables that rise as high as 250 feet above the East River between the East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island.

"We are working on setting up a bucket operation, which means we will offload the passengers one by one in midair," said Jarrod Bernstein, a spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management.

Emergency workers were preparing to send up large red metal baskets, which can hold up to 15 people each, along the length of the cable so that passengers could be moved off the tram cars, one over the East River and the other over Manhattan. Officials were planning to rescue passengers from the Roosevelt Island-bound car, which had about 50 passengers, first. Anxious relatives waited on land, squinting up and using cellphones to talk with the trapped passengers, who included several children heading to Roosevelt Island for after-school activities. Dax Maier, 12, was going to Roosevelt Island for tennis lessons with his nanny, said his mother, Robbyn Maier, who was waiting on Roosevelt Island last night. "Everybody is calm," she said. "They are just tired at this point."

Officials said the diesel generator that powers the system failed, and then the backup generator stopped working as well. Efforts to manually crank in the cars along the 3,000-foot length of cables back to the shoreline also proved fruitless, officials said.

It was the second time the tram had stalled for hours in the past eight months, raising questions about the aging tram system, which began service in 1976. "The whole tram system is 30 years old," said Judith A. Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. "They have new cabs, new windows, new cables, but it's old equipment."

The tram, originally built by a Swiss company, Vonroll Limited, for $5 million, is now operated by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, a quasi-governmental entity created in 1984. The corporation, which operates under the aegis of the state government, runs the island's services and oversees the island's development. Agency officials could not be reached for comment last night.

"The people who oversee the operations are state bureaucrats, not engineers," Ms. Berdy said. The tram had also stalled for two hours after a power failure in early September, and the only engineer who could fix that problem was brought in from Westchester County to restore power.

The system, which calls itself the only aerial commuter tram in the country, has been featured in movies including "City Slickers," starring Billy Crystal, and "Nighthawks," with Sylvester Stallone.

Lee Anne Siegel, 30, was taking her 14-month-old daughter, Riley, to Roosevelt Island to play in a park when the tram got stuck. Her husband, Jordan Siegel, was waiting for his wife on the Manhattan side last evening. He remembered that when he was a child, he had also been stuck on the tram when it stopped in midair — but only for 15 minutes or so, not hours.

"It's the first time they've been over there," he said. "I'm thinking Central Park from now on."

Anthony Ramirez and Sarah Garland contributed reporting for this article.

[crowina]

i saw it on the news... i'd loose it.

[howienewport]

My question is, where the FUCK is Spiderman when you need him!?!

[ghhhhhost]

ive lived in nyc for over 20 yrs..and have NEVER been to roosevelt island..or ridden the tram...100$ says all the people in the tram were tourists..cause im pretty sure the roos. island residents take the F train in ..instead of spending 8$ each way for the tram

[kfitz73]

ive lived in nyc for over 20 yrs..and have NEVER been to roosevelt island..or ridden the tram...100$ says all the people in the tram were tourists..cause im pretty sure the roos. island residents take the F train in ..instead of spending 8$ each way for the tram

/\/\/\

ditto

[Guest onisakura]

ive lived in nyc for over 20 yrs..and have NEVER been to roosevelt island..or ridden the tram...100$ says all the people in the tram were tourists..cause im pretty sure the roos. island residents take the F train in ..instead of spending 8$ each way for the tram

And i bet none of them will ever go on it again.

[Felix_Leiter]

ive lived in nyc for over 20 yrs..and have NEVER been to roosevelt island..or ridden the tram...100$ says all the people in the tram were tourists..cause im pretty sure the roos. island residents take the F train in ..instead of spending 8$ each way for the tram

not true.. a lot of people that work on the east side use it

[xlr8ted]

Where did they piss and shit?

[Guest onisakura]

Where did they piss and shit?

I guess over the side onto manhattan..?

[xlr8ted]

I guess over the side onto manhattan..?

Sounds like a shitty day.

[stymie]

By JENNIFER 8.