Tourists on the Tram? Roosevelt Islanders Are Fed Up.
New York is a city where people stand in lines to get into restaurants, to get into Broadway shows and lately even to get onto the unassuming Roosevelt Island tram. Social media discovered the tram several years ago and turned it into a tourist destination, an inexpensive way to take in the Manhattan skyline.
Even on cloudy, foggy days, a steady stream of sightseers rides the tram — and on a picture-perfect day, something can happen that was once unheard-of: Lines can form at the tram station in Manhattan, on Second Avenue just beyond the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Long lines, some Roosevelt Island residents say.
'Sometimes the lines can be 45 minutes or an hour,' said Anna Zychlinsky Scharff, a physician and researcher in pediatric oncology who lives on Roosevelt Island. 'I have to get to day care to pick up my kid. I don't have 45 minutes.'
Residents like Zychlinsky Scharff want what some passengers get at the airport: priority boarding.
Paul Krikler, a member of Manhattan Community Board 8 and the chairman of its Roosevelt Island Committee, said that 'fast pass' boarding would let residents and people who work on Roosevelt Island 'go about our regular lives, going to work, school, doctors' appointments and the like' no matter how big the tourist crowds are. The community board approved a resolution in January that called for priority boarding.
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