Flying high
Aerial tram has helped Portland, Ore., keep its hospital system
In the early 2000s, the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland was faced with a dilemma.
The hospital system and training center for medical students, dentists and other health professionals was the city’s largest employer. But it was running out of space to grow on Marquam Hill, an area with limited access provided by a few windy roads.
The system was giving serious consideration to expand in suburban areas around Portland, a move that would have run afoul of the well-planned city’s mantra to grow up rather than out, said Dylan Rivera, spokesman for Portland’s Bureau of Transportation.
At the same time, the city was trying to figure out how to revitalize a near-empty 100-acre warehouse and shipping industry area below Marquam Hill known as the South Waterfront.
Sensing an opportunity, the city and health system began talking about how they could help each other. One major problem loomed: the steep, 500-foot hill that separated the two sites.
After considering several ideas,
they settled on an option popular in the mountains of Europe and South America — a suspended cable car system.
Port Authority is considering that same option to connect the Hill District with the Strip District in Pittsburgh.
The Portland Aerial Tram and the Roosevelt Island Tramway between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island in New York City are the only U.S. systems used for urban transit.
Opened in 2007, the Portland tram carries about 2.2 million passengers annually and is considered the linchpin for expanding the health system within the city and spurring the growth of high-priced condominiums, restaurants and light industry in the South Waterfront.
“Faculty want to go from teaching to the clinic to offices in the same day, sometimes the same hour, and they wouldn’t have been able to do that if they moved to the suburbs,” Mr. Rivera said. “The tram was critical in solving that problem.”
As a result of the transportation connection, which can move upwards of 3,000 passengers an hour, the health system has focused most of its growth in the South Waterfront.
For Portland, an area that pays much attention to environmental concerns, the tram was a natural. It’s cleaner than most forms of transportation, and it kept the hospital from contributing to more urban sprawl.
The 3,300-foot tram operates like the inclines in Pittsburgh, with one 80-passenger car traveling up the hill while another comes down.
“Really, the only difference is we’re running on a cable above, and the incline is on a cable below,” said Brett Dodson, director of tram operations for the university.
Mr. Rivera and Mr. Dodson said the system has other advantages: It’s relatively inexpensive to operate, and it’s reliable, almost regardless of the weather.
The city and the health system have an arrangement for covering the cost of operating the tram. Students, employees, patients and their visitors receive badges from the health system to ride the tram for free. Others pay $5 for a round trip.
At the end of the year, officials add up the cost of operating the tram; the health system pays for its share of riders, and the city covers the rest. Right now, ridership is about 85% related to the health system, so the city pays only 15% of the cost, which Mr. Dodson said is easilycovered by the $5 fare.
So, unlike most public transit, the system pays for itself without any public subsidy. The parties also have set up a fund to cover long-term maintenance and improvements.
For those who drive, getting to the health system’s main campus can be a challenge in the winter because conditions can change from drizzle below the hill to snow and ice atop it. That’s not a problem for the tram.
“Remember, it was designed by the Swiss,” Mr. Rivera said. “It does great in the snow and ice.”
To prevent the cables from icing, the tram operates 24 hours a day in the winter even if it doesn’t have any riders.
Even wind rarely causes problems, Mr. Dodson said. The tram cars operate well in winds up to about 40 mph when the cars are full, but operators sometimes delay trips for a few minutes until more riders show up to provide more weight and reduce swaying.
Two or three days a year,
Mr. Dodson said, the system has to shut down for an hour or two when there are sustainedwinds above 40 mph.
In Pittsburgh, Port Authority said last week in a draft of its 25-year plan that a suspended cable car system was one possibility for a new transit corridor.
The plan gives top priority for establishing a corridor from the city’s Strip District to the Hill District, Oakland, Hazelwood and across the Monongahela River to Overbrook/Carrick.
A cable car system is a major consideration for moving people up the steep hill between the Strip and the Hill and also could be used for the rest of the route, which is designed to link residential areas with job centers in Oakland and Hazelwood Green, the ongoing redevelopment of the former Jones & Laughlin steel plant.
In the Strip, the goal would be to link whatever mode of transit is used with the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, which passes through the neighborhood but only has stops at the far ends.
Advocacy group Strip District Neighbors said it understands the need for better transit connections for the neighborhood, where residential population has doubled since 2010. It is growing even faster now, with high-tech and officesalso supplementing the warehouse district.
Strip District Neighbors supports considering the cable car system among the options, said Chris Watts, the group’s director of community development who also is vice president of mobility for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
“Improving transit for the Strip is going to be a growing issue,” Mr. Watts said. “Better transit connections are absolutely something the community is supportive of.
“We want a better connection to the East Busway in the neighborhood. The more options that are considered, the better.”
In Portland, Mr. Rivera said the experience of riding the tram is another benefit.
“It’s such a different way to get around. There’s such a wonder to it.”
In Pittsburgh, Port Authority said last week in a draft of its 25-year plan that a suspended cable car system was one possibility for a new transit corridor. The plan gives top priority for establishing a corridor from the city’s Strip District to the Hill District, Oakland, Hazelwood and across the Monongahela River to Overbrook/Carrick.