A walk west down Vesey St. from its intersection at Church St. can be a hazardous undertaking as a seemingly endless amount of people stream into Lower Manhattan from the PATH train terminal at the World Trade Center. If those crowds of people seem to be growing, that’s because PATH ridership is too. In fact, the agency announced this week that ridership is at an all-time high under the Port Authority as 76.6 million commuters took PATH trips in 2011.
The previous high had been 74.9 in 2008, and the 2011 jump in ridership amounted to a 3.6 percent increase over 2010. Port Authority officials credited an investment program amounting to over $1 billion in upgrades as a main driver behind the increase. Steep fare hikes in New Jersey likely played a role as well. “Our multi-billion-dollar commitment to transform PATH into a 21st century rail system has paid dividends,” Port Authority Chairman David Samson said. “More people are taking notice of what PATH has to offer and are choosing it as their preferred mode of travel between New York and New Jersey.”
With an entirely new fleet of rolling stock already on hand, the PATH system will soon enjoy more station renovations and a fully computerized signal system. The WTC-Newark line is also undergoing a transformation that will allow for 10-car sets, and of course, the Calatrava-designed hub in Lower Manhattan will open eventually as well. Now if only PATH and New York City Transit would integrate their fare payment mechanisms.
25 comments
Time for PATH train extension to Astor Place?
Any particular reason why? It ain’t that long a walk from 9th St-6th Ave PATH station to most of the East Village. And there are a few buses (M1, M2, M3, M8) that run along 8th St and stop near Astor Pl/Cooper Union already. Very expensive proposition for not much return.
In order to provide east side access to it’s users, the Trans Hudson Lines originally planned to meet the Lexington Ave line at Astor Place, and the bell mouth already exists – with 300 feet of tunnel already dug eastward. PATH uses it now for storage, but you can see it from the north end of the 9th Street platform.
The smart thing now would be to continue the tunnel … but slightly more northward, bringing it under Union Square. It’s already at the proper depth, it wouldn’t cross any other subway lines, it’s only one stop distance and it would connect with the N,R,Q,4,5,6 and L subway trains there.
If PATH were subsumed into the MTA – which I think it should – it would be a logical extension with a lot of bang for the buck.
The smart thing to do now would be to not continue the tunnel, and avoid that frequency split. At much higher cost but also much greater utility, they could try to connect the Downtown Tubes to the 6…
I seriously doubt there is sufficient demand between PATH and the 6 to warrant such a thing. The only thing kind of cool about the idea is the one-seat ride from Newark to GCT, and that would be marred by the 6 being local.
If someone’s going to throw $2B at PATH, they may as well send it somewhere that doesn’t have service yet, or at least give the outer boroughs and Jersey a one-seat non-automobile option.
I’ve always thought that with the reconstruction of the WTC, New York missed out on a huge opportunity to connect the E train to the PATH tubes leading to NJ. It would allow a one seat ride from Newark to the entire 8th ave and Queens Blvd lines.
Can’t be done, since the E’s rail cars are about a foot wider than PATH’s and can’t fit into the tubes (the MTA and PATH could probably come up with a hybrid rail car that would work on the PATH and IRT lines, but navagating all the tunnels between City Hall and the WTC to link PATH up with the 6 train would be a major thread-the-needle undertaking).
The inside diameters of the cast iron rings in the BMT East River tunnels are actually narrower than the PATH tunnels. However, the PATH tunnels have construction that fills in that space and make it too narrow for NYCTA B division revenue cars. There might also be clearance issues with the curves.
Now if only PATH and New York City Transit would integrate their fare payment mechanisms.
You can use your MetroCard to ride PATH. Been able to do that for years.
You can use your pay-per-ride MetroCard for PATH, and that’s it. It’s a start.
Let’s not forget to say that it must also be a FULL-FARE pay-per-ride card. I remember when a few years ago I tried to use my Handicapped MetroCard at the WTC PATH station. When it did not work, I went up to an employee for help, and he told me that “It has to be the kind of MetroCard that you put money on”. I explained that I DO put money on that card, but he was not able to help me.
You can point to Westchester’s Bee-Line for an example that PATH should follow. Bee-Line buses use the Metrocard and they allow free transfers with NYCT and unlimited cards, despite being a separate system run by the County.
But considering that PATH’s own fare collection system uses Smartcards now, I don’t think they want to go backward. Might as well wait for the MTA to catch up for PATH to jump on board the same system.
PATH uses a proprietary Cubic-provided system, which is incompatible with the open ISO standard used by PayPass and in the future the MTA.
And unlike Chicago, which wants to dump Cubic and join New York, Port Authority has no intention of any kind of integration with the MTA.
PATH participated in the same smartcard pilot program as the MTA in 2010. When all is said and done, the smartcard system will be regional. That means that all of the transit agencies (or at least all of the major ones) will accept the same fare medium and will be able to offer free or discounted transfers between agencies, if they so desire.
What we really want is free transfers.
Maybe free transfers are too much to hope for, but at least they should accept ANY kind of pay-per-ride MetroCard, If you are elderly or handicapped, you DON’T become young or completely physically normal the moment you enter a PATH station. Now I KNOW that PATH has its own reduced-fare system, but you are not likely to have THAT kind of a card if you are an occasional rider who does not live or work in New Jersey.
The free transfer issue is not a technical issue – it’s a revenue issue. If people who currently pay two fares now only pay one, both agencies will lose fare revenue. I don’t think either agency is in a position right now to lose fare revenue, so the base fares will have to be increased to compensate.
I’ve never understood why there can’t be a single reduced fare MetroCard that’s valid everywhere MetroCards are accepted. And unlike NYCT, which has a (clunky) means of paying the reduced fare without a reduced fare MetroCard, there is no way to pay the reduced fare on PATH without having first gone through the process of applying for a Senior SmartLink Card.
You wont get it. PA isnt going to loose money, its a for profit business, unlike the MTA whose goal is to be a welfare program for its workers.
I believe that the PATH system is run at a loss by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and is considerably subsidized by that agency.
Jerrold is right. PATH actually has lower farebox recovery than the subway. And both are doing much worse than systems in some cities that think that hating on the customers is bad strategy and offer free everything-to-everything transfers.
I had to buy a $4 round trip ticket today. My unlimited monthly MetroCard doesn’t work in the PATH system.
Gotta be due to all of the self-hating New York Red Bulls fans, such as myself…
And they did it with a food/drink ban and without trash cans: something the bigger, competing railroads (NYCT, NJT) don’t have. Perhaps that’s irrelevant, but those differences aren’t driving people away.
I recently moved to Jersey City. I have to say, my PATH commute into Lower Manhattan is significantly nicer than my subway commute was. Path trains are newer and cleaner. Best of all, they run on a schedule (that they actually keep to).
What is PATH’s capacity at rush hour? It seems over capacity. The HOB-WTC line is infrequent (relatively), but the NWK-WTC and JSQ-33 trains always seem crowded.