The Roosevelt Island Tram, which vanished from the East River skyline last March for a total overhaul, is scheduled to resume service in November. The most exciting 3-minute trip in the city now has a completely new system. Rebuilt by the French company, Poma, which built the Aiguille du Midi tram on Mont Blanc, all that remains of the original are its three supporting towers.

Last Saturday, one of the new trams was hoisted aloft for a rigorous series of tests. Walking back from the 57th Street galleries this Wednesday, I spotted engineers at work on the cab, which was suspended above Second Avenue at 59th Street. The sleek, shiny red cabin is so alluring - and joy! On this sighting, there was no evidence of bad monster-size typography spelling out "Roosevelt Island". A recent report on the RI blog showed a model of the lovely vehicle disgraced by badly kerned Verdana. With lilft-off looming on the horizon, is the RI Operating Company scrambling to select a designer for this task? But for now, I'm just hoping for snow on start-up day - for a dreamy evocation of high altitude ski stations with their Poma lifts and trams. (Photos: Peggy Roalf)