Main Street Wire
10/20/2007Contents
RIOC Board Votes to Pursue Possibility of Dual Tram System
by Dick Lutz
Main Street Wire
The RIOC Board of Directors voted Thursday night to "go into the marketplace" to pursue the possibility of a revised Tramway in which two cabins would operate independently.
The projected cost, should the plan ultimately go forward as envisioned in RIOC’s "Alternative 4," would be $21 million to something over $25 million – perhaps as high as $30 million – in 2007 dollars. The Tramway would be out of operation for at least seven months, but the work would not be authorized without further consideration by the Corporation’s Board, and the actual downtime would not start until after a long period of preparation, perhaps a year.
New York State would pick up $15 million of the cost. In fact, the very reason for current consideration of the Tram’s future is a concern about losing those funds in the next State budget, unless some plan for the Tramway is firmly in place. RIOC staff presented a financial projection and revision of the current capital expenditure plan showing that its income stream would be up to the task of supplying the balance, though with some reliance on ground-rent income from a completed Southtown.
RIOC President Steve Shane expressed a frank preference for the dual system, justifying the cost by calling the Tramway an "essential public service" and citing the advantages of lowering annual downtime from the present 850 hours to a projected 25 hours, made possible, the consulting engineers said, by the ability to operate one side of the system while the other side was undergoing maintenance.
The vote was 5-2, with resident Board members Mark Ponton and Michael Shinozaki raising questions about the wisdom of such a radical change in a system that has served the Island well for 30 years. Shinozaki, in particular, expressed concern about any plan that might jeopardize the Tram’s "grandfathered" status under City and State law, asking for concrete assurances that the changes contemplated would not cause current regulations, rather than those that were in effect 30 years ago, to apply to the Tramway. Those regulations govern such things as height over City streets, but also bear on State Department of Labor regulations that have been revised over the past three decades. (The Department of Labor is responsible for elevators and, by extension, tram systems.)
Ponton’s reservations centered on downtime, which would be shorter under the simplest and least costly alternative, and on doubts about the actual potential for serious failure of system components. "So what if the Tram is 30 years old?" he asked. "The issue is, is the Tram physically capable of doing the job and is it still doing it? Yes [it is]." Ponton said he would vote for only the simplest changes with the shortest downtime, and cited the fact that the Island’s disabled population relies on the Tram, since the subway is not compliant with the needs of physically disabled persons, especially those using powered wheelchairs.
Shinozaki pressed the engineers for firmer answers on what, in the present system, would cause them to project a seven-year life. "Exactly which components have a seven-year life expectancy?" he asked. He pointed out that financial projections, presented to Board members to justify the expenditures required for major changes, depend upon the seven-year figure being accurate. Consultant Jim Fletcher of Parametrix responded that it was impossible to predict specifically what components might fail, saying that "as a system," the present Tramway has a potentially limited life. He cited the system’s gearbox as one component, hard to replace, that might fail.
Shinozaki said that separating the two sides of the system would make it more complex. "Making a system more complex often leads to greater levels of failure," he said, suggesting that there would be a greater maintenance hit imposed by dividing the system into two separated Roosevelt Island Tramways. Fletcher responded, "I would tend to say that the likelihood of jamming up two Trams instead of just one" would be rather small. He said that was the basis for the projection of only 25 hours of downtime with the proposed system.
Responding to the concern about losing "grandfathered" status, Shane told Shinozaki and Ponton that each step would be taken only with the assurance of the appropriate agencies, like the Department of Labor, that new restrictions would not be triggered by the planned action. When asked what would happen if RIOC learned the status would be altered, he said, "You go back."
Board members speaking in favor of taking steps toward the dual system used analogies like the reliability of aging automobiles as compared with new ones. David Kraut said that even though he might own a perfectly good car on which he has replaced many components, if offered a new car, he would take it. Resident Board member Patrick Stewart asked Michael R. Deiparine of Parametrix, "Am I right in assuming that a new system is less likely to experience failures?" In response, he got a "Yes."
After two hours of discussion and some reassurances that the plans would be brought back to the RIOC Board for sequential approval, Stewart put forward a resolution that the Board authorize RIOC staff to take steps toward the fully separated system. Board Chair (and Commissioner of the State Department of Housing and Community Renewal) Deborah VanAmerongen seconded the motion. Stewart, VanAmerongen, George Wentewelt (the Board member representing the State Budget Office), and resident Board members Charlee Miller and David Kraut voted yes; Shinozaki and Ponton voted no.
The vote gives RIOC and its consultants the ability to negotiate seriously with the two companies that build tramways, tapping their expertise on all the questions that surround tramway construction in general, and the Roosevelt Island system in particular.
Transportation Needs
In his introductory presentation, Shane said the need for a highly reliable Tramway capable of full-time service is clear, given the inability of the MTA to improve subway service to the Island, and given the long lead times required to put alternative systems, like ferries or water taxis, in place. Shane said those alternatives were both costly and inadequate. He said the subway problem stems from explosive growth in Queens that has overwhelmed the subway system.
Shane said the Tramway presently carries about 1.6 million passengers a year, and he projected that would reach 2 million with the full build-out of Southtown.