Palm Springs Tram fixed after nearly 600 people stuck at top of mountain

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is back up and running after an issue caused it to stop, leaving hundreds stranded at the top of the mountain.

Greg Purdy, the Tram's VP of Marketing & Public Affairs, confirmed the stoppage and added that crews ran test runs to get people back down.

Valerie Gonzalez, a tram rider, described her thoughts when she found out the tram was stopped. “I was scared, I thought we weren't going to be home tonight and we have plans tonight so we were like, oh are we gonna make it back?"

Tramway officials told News Channel 3 that about 585 people were stranded at the Mountain Station of the tram.

Tram rides up the mountain were shut down for the rest of the day.

Many of the visitors said they were stuck for several hours at the top. “We got up there at like 11am and I think the wait was like 3 hours to stay up there and then we just got down now," Courtney Pichardo said.

For other tram riders, it was just a minor delay in their plans.

“We kind of moseyed around, it was about 45 minutes to an hour so it wasn’t terrible,” said Dakota Pedersen.

Tram riders said the staff was very accommodating during the wait. The staff there were really understanding. They did their best to try and let us know what was going on so while it was a little frustrating, they were good people so it was a good time,” Pedersen added.

But despite the delay, visitors said they enjoyed the views and the beautiful day at the top of the tramway.

“It was a great trip, weather was great and all the staff was just very helpful trying to keep us calm and stuff,” said Hope Gonzalez.

The tram ran until 9:30 p.m. to get people down.

It takes about 12 minutes from the Tram to travel up and down the mountain.

The tram is expected to reopen at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.