The annual evacuation exercise for the Portland Aerial Tram is set for Sunday morning, Oct. 10. The exercise will begin at 9 a.m. and should be concluded by noon.

Members of the Portland Fire and Rescue Technical Rescue Team will lead the exercise. They will be assisted by representatives from both the City of Portland, whose Bureau of Transportation owns the tram, and Oregon Health & Science University, which operates the tram in conjunction with Doppelmayr USA.

Using ropes and harnesses, the team will lower four Doppelmayr employees playing the role of passengers 100 feet to the top floor of the OHSU Casey Eye Institute's parking garage.

The training allows crews to practice an aerial rescue in the event the tram is stopped for an extended period of time with passengers on board. If members of the public contact you with questions about the training, please inform them that this is a scheduled training exercise and not a real emergency.

Tram ridership has been limited since March 2020, under safety precautions for the COVID-19 pandemic. For more detail about the current operations, which were adjusted in September, see the PBOT travel advisory.

The exercise has been conducted annually since the Portland Aerial Tram opened on Jan. 27, 2007 and is designed to provide personnel with experience in executing a last resort safety measure. There has never been a real emergency.

Before the pandemic-related limits, more than 9,000 daily commuters and tourists rode the Portland Aerial Tram, one of only two aerial gondolas used for urban public transit in the United States.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-10 06:03:52

Last Update: 2021-10-10 00:19:19