Travel Advisory: Portland Aerial Tram limits rider access to hospital employees, patients

Press Release
PBOT Tram
Beginning Friday, March 20, access to the Portland Aerial Tram will be limited to the following fares: OHSU identification badges, VA Portland Health Care System employee cards, Shriner’s Hospitals for Children – Portland employee cards, and patients of OHSU, VA Portland and Shriner’s Hospital.
Published

(March 20, 2020) – In alignment with direction from Gov. Kate Brown and Mayor Ted Wheeler on limiting the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Oregon Health & Science University have announced temporary restrictions to rider access on the Portland Aerial Tram.

Beginning Friday, March 20, access to the Portland Aerial Tram will be limited to the following fares:

  • OHSU identification badges
  • VA Portland Health Care System employee cards
  • Shriner’s Hospitals for Children – Portland employee cards
  • Patients of OHSU, VA Portland and Shriner’s Hospital

These service changes further adhere to OHSU’s temporary restriction of hospital visitors beginning March 20. Similar to health care institutions nationwide, these measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of patients, hospital staff and the broader community. Additional details regarding OHSU’s visitation policy can be found here.

Tram operators will not allow more than 10 people at a time to ride in each of the two cabins, down from a normal capacity of 79 people per cabin. This limit was first implemented on Monday, and is intended to enable passengers and tram operators to implement the social distancing guidance the governor and public health officials have established.

General public ticket sales for the tram are expected to resume once risks of COVID-19 subside and hospital visitation restrictions are lifted.


The Portland Aerial Tram is owned by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation and operated by OHSU.  It opened to the public on Jan. 27, 2007. The cabins, named Walt and Jean, travel 3,300 linear feet between the South Waterfront terminal adjacent to the OHSU Center for Health & Healing and the upper terminal at the Kohler Pavilion on OHSU's main campus. Traveling at 22 miles per hour, the tram cabins rise 500 feet for the three-minute trip over I-5, the Lair Hill neighborhood and the Southwest Terwilliger  Parkway. The Portland Aerial Tram provides an average 9,000 rides on weekdays, with about 85 percent of riders visiting OHSU and 15 percent members of the general public and tourists.  Visit gobytram.com. Find the tram on Twitter @PortlandTram  and Facebook.