Tram Retirement Party & Last Rides

The current Tram cabins are being retired once the Tram overhaul begins with this Monday's scheduled shutdown. So a party is being held beginning Sunday night at the Riverwalk Bar & Grill after which folks are heading onto the Tram presumably for Monday's 1:45 am Tram to Manhattan and 2:00 am return trip to Roosevelt Island. Sounds like fun ! I will be home sleeping as babysitting after midnight gets expensive.

Tram Featured as Staycation Destination

A post on the NY Times City Room blog this morning featured the Roosevelt Island Tram as one of several destinations that the author visited on a recent “staycation”.

Get in those staycations now before July 6th or you will miss out until December 2009.

NY1: Resident Concerns re July Tram Outage

The Roosevelt Islander within his blog post about Roosevelt Island on the web this Saturday added a link to the NY1 article and video about resident concerns about this coming Summer's planned tram outage.

The blog post by the Roosevelt Islander is an update of the Internet links provided by the Roosevelt Islander which ran in this weekend's Main Street WIRE.

Tram to Reopen Early at 5pm Today

According to a RIOC Advisory issued this afternoon the scheduled maintenance work has been completed early and the Roosevelt Island Tram will be put back into service at 5pm this afternoon. The Tram had originally been scheduled to return to service tomorrow morning at 6am.

Free service will be provided to all riders through 2am tonight. Queens/Manhattan express bus service is being terminated. It is assumed this is effective as of 5pm as well.

Ridership Levels of Alternative Roosevelt Island Red Bus

Based on the below statistics it appears that Roosevelt Island residents have not been taking advantage of or see the benefit of taking the Red Bus during the morning rush hour periods, to Queens Plaza or during non-rush periods into Manhattan directly. I would expect that this weekend the numbers will spike higher as I recall weekends being a pretty high usage rate during the Summer of 2006 when the Tram was out and during Subway disruption weekends. But we shall see what happens.

Looking at these stats it would appear that RIOC may decide that the Red Bus option should not be repeated during the planned 2009 outage as they are using this outage as a gauge torwards resident usage for that later period.

My only thoughts are that I wonder if greater use would be made of this option if the Red Bus would to first loop around the Island as the Q102 does before it leaves the Island. Could it be that for many residets the added time to first get themselves to Gristedes is an added impediment to the use of this option?

A good question asked of Mr. Shane by Patrick Stewart, a member of the RIOC Board of Directors, is of the stats provided how many riders were seniors or disabled for whom the subway stairs / escalators / elevators may prove challenging. Mr. Shane has not responded to that question or may not have thta level of detail availabel to him if it was even captured at all.

I will admit for my purposes taking the bus to Queens Plaza puts me further away from my commuting goals distance wise and it makes no sense for me during rush our periods. If the subway goes out though this option will be imperative for all residents wishing to head off the island.

-----Original Message-----

From: "Stephen Shane"
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:32:23
Subject: Red Bus Ridership during Tram outage - Stats for 6/11/08:

From RI to Queens Plaza (6AM-9:30AM):
16 passengers 8 trips

From QP to RI (returns):
0 passengers 8 trips

From RI to Manhattan (10AM-2PM):
9 Passengers 5 trips

From Manhattan to RI (returns at 10:30 AM-2:30PM);\:
8 Passengers 5 trips

From RI to Manhattan (7PM-11PM)
9 Passengers 5 trips

From Manhattan to RI (returns at 7:30PM-11:30PM):
9 Passengers 5 trips

We shall see as the word spreads and/or sinks in. Hard to justify at this level! An experiment.

Steve

Stephen H. Shane
President & CEO
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp.

Tram Outage Day 2: Commentary

F Train Update

My Day 2 experience was limited to arriving before 8am and getting on a F Train within a few minutes without issue. My advice which applies any dayu of the work week is get tothe platform before 8am and your issues will be mininmized.

The Main Street WIRE is reporting that approximately 100 individuals were left on the Manhattan bound platform between the period 825am to 845am. Even on a normal operating day during that time period it is expected that a number of riders will not be able to get on crowded trains.

Red Bus Schedules - New Service to Manhattan During Non Rush Hours

RIOC President Steve Shane announced yesterday that RIOC decided to provide off hour service directly to 60th Street in Manhattan in addition to rush hour service to Queens Plaza. Just as the Roosevelt Islander applauded RIOC yesterday for this decision I too thank Mr. Shane for this added service as I am sure it will be an aid to residents who find the stairs at both the Queens Plaza and Lex / 63rd Street subway stations too much too handle.

A copy of the updated Red Bus schedule will be available throughout his outage in the left side bar to this blog. Just doble cvlick to link tothe schedule and then double click to enlarge the image.

SkyFox Video re Tram Outage

Double click the image image to view the SkyFox video regarding the Roosevelt Island Tram outage.

Parts of the video are new from today but parts are stock footage from the April 2006 unscheduled Tram outage when riders were stranded over the East River. Note the old "The Tram" logo as opposed to today's RIOC logo.

The related FOX website story can be found HERE.

[Milestone: This is Post # 700 to this blog]

Tram Outage Day One : No Man Left Behind

The Main Street WIRE, in the form of Dick Lutz, stood this morning on the Queens bound subway platform at the Roosevelt Island station and counted how many subway riders were left behind on this the first morning rush of the Tram's 9 day plannned outage. His count: Zero.

I myself was on the platform for the short period between 745am and 750am or so. I came onto a basically empty platform except for a few riders like myself who just descended the escaltors. A train showed up within 5 minutes with room enough for the hundred or more riders that had accumulated in those few minutes.

As the WIRE Bulletin posited it is unclear if the lack of riders was due to many staying home due to the excessive heat predictions or other factors. The real question is how was the platform between 815am and 845am which is usually the heaviest period of traffic.

Based on this morning I would advise all resident commuters to leave earlier than usual to ensure a stress free ride as much as possible.

No Tram, F Train Rerouted - How Do I Get Home to Roosevelt Island ?

Almost three months ago I ran a post titled "From There to Here: 23rd St/Ely Ave to Roosevelt Island". At that time the post was responding to a blogger that found themselves on a rerouted F train that became an V Train and the blogger was unsure how to recover and still get to Roosevelt Island. Yesterday evening, during rush hour, selected F Trains were also rerouted but in this case my wife was able to get out and at Lex/ 53rd and walk to the Tram. Starting today that option does not exist for the next ten days so the question is worth visiting again.

As I stated in my comments back on March 19th, two possible mass transit solutions are possible and any Roosevelt Island resident that has been reading all our prior service disruption notices would know at least th first one:

(1) Stay on Queens bound F, now running on the V Line, and take it to Roosevelt Ave and then switch back onto a Manhattan bound F train, or

(2) Take the Queens bound F, now running on the V Line, to Queens Plaza. Transfer from the subway to a Roosevelt Island bound Q102 Queens Bus.

If anyone has any other suggestions please let us know. We’d like to hear them.