Sunday’s Oregonian has a two-part Q&A style piece by Ryan Frank discussing mostly operational issues with the OHSU tram.
The mid-air rescue scenario is pretty harrowing, if unlikely (there are two backup power sources to get the cars back to the terminals if the main electrical motor fails). The engineers claim that they have a better handle on dealing with ice than MAX appears to.
4 responses to “Tram Facts”
I look forward to when this opens, I think it will be great. I agree, going down 125-175 feet in a harness not fun, but it looks pretty safe, probably safer then the MAX versus a fire truck!
The rescue scenario in which firefighters ascend the rope before lowering any passengers seems needlessly complex. Why not just train the drivers in lowering technique? Anyone who has spent more than 20 minutes in a rock climbing gym knows how to lower someone using a friction device. In the sort of event that might stop tram operations (e.g. an earthquake), I’d expect the fire department to have better things to worry about than climbing up two hundred feet of rope.
In any case, as someone who has paid money to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, rappeling out of the tram sounds like a blast. If volunteers are needed to test this plan, count me in.
I was up at OHSU yesterday and got a closer look at the upper terminal. I am looking forward to riding the tram when we get a good snow storm; I’ll have my x-country skiis along and will have a great run back down to the river.
I wonder how many vehicle accidents will result from people gawking up at the tram while they’re driving? Will the traffic come to a crawl like it does in Fife with people looking at the fancy signs?