The Roosevelt Island Tramway is an aerial tramway that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Roosevelt Island to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The tramway is the first commuter aerial tramway in the U.S., having opened on May 17, 1976, to serve residential developments on Roosevelt Island. The tram is operated by Leitner-Poma on behalf of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation of the State of New York.
Before the tramway opened, Roosevelt Island had been accessed via the Roosevelt Island Bridge from Queens, which had opened in 1955. Starting in the late 1960s, the 63rd Street subway line was built to connect new developments on the island to Manhattan. Due to delays in the subway's construction, the tramway was proposed in 1971 and approved in 1973, initially as a temporary mode of transport. The tramway carried 1.25 million riders in its first year and remained popular thereafter, despite intermittent closures. Ridership declined sharply after the subway opened in 1989, though the tramway remained in operation. Following two major breakdowns in the mid-2000s, the tramway was rebuilt from March to November 2010. The stations were renovated in the late 2010s.
Originally, the tram used two 125-person cabins that were hauled by the same cable. After the 2010 renovation, the cabins were replaced with 110-person vehicles that could operate independently. The cabins travel between an at-grade terminal on Roosevelt Island and an elevated terminal on Manhattan Island. The route operates at all times except late nights, with headways of 7.5 to 15 minutes. The tramway uses the same fare structure and collection equipment as the city's bus and subway systems, and fares can be paid with mobile or payment card tap-to-pay or OMNY card. Over the years, the Roosevelt Island Tramway has been the subject of commentary and praised as an icon of New York City, and it has been depicted in several works of media.
History
Background What is now Roosevelt Island was, until the mid-20th century, known as Blackwell's Island or Welfare Island; it was largely occupied by hospitals and asylums. The Queensboro Bridge, which connected the island with Queens and Manhattan, opened in 1909. A trolley (streetcar) line ran across the bridge when it opened, stopping in the middle of the bridge at an elevator that took passengers down to the island. The trolley remained in service until April 7, 1957, as the last trolley line in New York state; a bridge to Queens had been completed two years earlier.
After the state government leased Welfare Island from the city in 1969, several large housing developments were built there in the early 1970s, necessitating the construction of a public transit connection. Welfare Island was renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973, and residents began moving onto the island in mid-1975. The Roosevelt Island subway station on the 63rd Street Line was being developed to serve the new community, but the entire line was delayed significantly by the mid-1970s. The first residents of Roosevelt Island had to travel through Queens to leave the island, making it difficult to travel to and from Manhattan via car.
Development
Planning Because of the delays in building the subway line, an alternative mode of transportation between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island had to be devised. At a meeting of Manhattan Community Board 8 in September 1971, the Welfare Island Development Corporation proposed an aerial tramway, which the board narrowly approved the next month. The tram was to run between the Motorgate parking garage on Welfare Island and 72nd Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side, with two 120-passenger cabins that ascended above the East River. The Christian Science Monitor wrote that the tramway "ought to be the classiest transportation buy in New York City". Although the 72nd Street location had been selected because it was far from the subway, wealthy Manhattan residents objected to the tramway's terminal being placed there.
The Urban Development Corporation (UDC), a New York state agency, had studied the feasibility of a ferry, a bus, and an aerial tramway by 1972. Ferry routes to 34th, 63rd, and 71st Streets were studied but were ruled out due to high operating costs, lack of mass-transit connections, and lack of union support. Other alternatives under consideration included an elevator extending directly from the Queensboro Bridge. UDC architect William Chafee proposed an aerial tramway, which was ultimately selected because it was cheap, direct, and fit into Roosevelt Island's quiet character. By early 1973, the UDC was finalizing plans for a tramway, which was to be the first commuter aerial tramway in the U.S. The tramway was to be the main means of travel between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan, and it was intended as a temporary mode of transit until the subway was completed. The plans called for two 125-passenger cabins that would travel across the East River's western channel, just south of the Queensboro Bridge. Officials hoped the tramway would help the UDC's sales campaigns for the island.
Residents of Sutton Place, a street facing the East River in Manhattan, opposed the tramway plan because they felt the tramway would cause urban blight. The United States Coast Guard also needed to approve the project because it crossed a navigable waterway. In September 1973, the route was changed to the north side of the Queensboro Bridge after property owners protested; UDC president Ed Logue said that "no prominent people lived" near the bridge's north side. The next month, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the aerial tramway. The state government was given a franchise for the tramway in December 1973, allowing construction to begin.
Construction
Swiss firm Von Roll was selected to supply and erect the tram and its equipment, in part because, according to the New York Daily News, Von Roll made the "Cadillac of tramways". VSL, a subsidiary of Von Roll, installed the equipment. The United States Army Corps of Engineers solicited public comments on the tramway plan in January 1974. The footpath on the Queensboro Bridge was shuttered that July in preparation for the tramway's opening, and a pair of lampposts at the Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge were removed to make way for the tramway. On the Roosevelt Island side, work was delayed because of the need to relocate the island's municipal laundry building.
Work on the route began the first week of October 1974. Construction, initially scheduled to be completed by around September 1975, was delayed due to the UDC's financial issues. An interim commuter bus to Manhattan via Queens was launched in March 1975; the bus route took up to an hour to reach Manhattan, whereas the tramway was expected to take five minutes. The tramway's engineer, David Ozerkis, predicted the next month that construction would be complete within the year. By that April, two of three tramway towers were finished.
The towers for the tram route were erected by July 1975, when completion was projected for that December. The first cables for the tramway were installed the next month. Construction was delayed various times, in part due to strikes and inclement weather. The delays prompted numerous unfounded rumors about the route, including conjecture that the cabins were involved in collisions or were being secretly run at night. During an initial test of the route in February 1976, a tram hit a light pole, forcing the removal of the pole. By March of that year, the route was complete, and it only needed additional testing and state government approval before it could open to the public. The tramway had cost $6.25 million or $6.8 million to build (equivalent to $– million in ) It was funded by bonds that had been issued to fund the development of Roosevelt Island. The equipment and vehicles had cost at least $2 million (equivalent to $ million in ), while the support towers and stations cost another $4.25 million (equivalent to $ million in ).
Opening and early operations
1970s
The tramway route opened on May 17, 1976. As built, there was one elevator at the Manhattan terminal; the Roosevelt Island terminal was at ground level. The first staff members included an unemployed firefighter who, according to The New York Times, said that his knowledge of "rescue procedures" had gotten him the job. The city's franchise to the UDC mandated that the tram's fare be at least 25 cents more expensive than the subway's fare, preventing the tram from drawing away subway riders. The route was free on its opening day, but rides were 50 cents () thereafter. Following Roosevelt Island residents' complaints, the UDC stopped selling fares in Manhattan, gave "priority passes" to Roosevelt Island residents, limited the capacity of each tram, and prohibited several activities onboard. Bicycles were allowed in the cabins, but the UDC gave priority to passengers.
Paul Goldberger of The New York Times wrote that Roosevelt Island's popularity rose significantly after the tramway opened, while a writer for the Gannett News Service said the tramway had become both a tourist attraction in itself and an icon of the island. After the UDC fired the original operator, ITT Inc., it hired VSL International to run the tram in January 1977; there was no bidding process before VSL received the contract. VSL's staff of 20 tram operators (who also worked as station attendants), six mechanics, and four console operators worked three shifts of eight hours each. The UDC received a $2 million annual subsidy from the state government (equivalent to $ million in ) for the tramway and other projects on Roosevelt Island.
In 1977—its first full year of operation—the tramway recorded an $800,000 deficit (). The tramway's liability insurance policy cost $900,000 per year (), almost equal to its revenue from fares; such an expensive insurance cost was necessitated by the fact that there were no other aerial commuter tramways in the U.S. In addition, operating expenses amounted to $1 million a year (equivalent to $ million in ), and the state government was essentially paying a 95-cent subsidy for every rider. Despite the lack of any major accidents, the tramway continued to have high insurance costs in 1978. This prompted governor Hugh Carey to ask his aides to study the feasibility of having the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) take over the line. The tramway was shuttered in mid-November 1978 so workers could replace the haul cable, which was beyond the end of its service life. The cable replacement project cost $75,000 and took two weeks. Afterward, the tramway had to be closed every two years so workers could replace the haul cable.
1980s A plaza around the tram's Manhattan terminal was established in 1980. After the tram was closed in November 1980 for haul cable replacement, the new cable fell twice in one month, prompting investigations by the state government. The months-long closure caused overcrowding on Queens bus routes and did not end until March 1981.; The extended closure of the tramway had also prompted proposals for a year-round ferry to Roosevelt Island,; but interest in the ferry disappeared after the tram reopened. Further haul-cable replacements occurred in November 1983; and August 1985. Although both cabins were originally red, one of the cabins was repainted blue in 1984, prompting complaints from some residents. State officials warned in late 1985 that tram passengers could have to wait as long as 45 minutes if the subway line to Roosevelt Island were not completed within three years. The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), a state agency created in 1984 to manage Roosevelt Island, took over the tram service when it was created.