Nearly two and a half months after Superstorm Sandy swamped the PATH system, the Port Authority will be restoring some 24-hour service to its beleaguered interstate subway system, Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo announced today. Starting tonight, PATH service between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., seven days a week, will commence between Newark and 33rd St. via Hoboken with stops including Harrison, Journal Square, Grove Street, and Newport in New Jersey and Christopher Street, 9th Street, 14th Street, and 23rd Street in Manhattan. This route will also run non-stop over the weekends starting at 10 p.m. on Friday and running through 5 a.m. on Monday.
According to the press release, restoring PATH service “has been a top priority for the Port Authority.” Wise minds could debate what exactly that means for the same amount of time it took the PA to restore service. Still, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth that closely. For lots of commuters and New Jersey residents, even this limited 24-hour service is a welcome relief to the transit desert that had enveloped the area.
Meanwhile, the World Trade Center stop will not be a part of this service restoration. The infrastructure between the WTC and Exchange Place was seriously damaged during the flooding, and as this week’s escalator malfunction showed, there’s still a long way to go before everything is normal again. Still, this is a big step. Now who wants to go to Barcade in Jersey City?
10 comments
So, are services from 33 St going to Newark?
Yes.
According to the press release, restoring PATH service “has been a top priority for the Port Authority.” Wise minds could debate what exactly that means for the same amount of time it took the PA to restore service. Still, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth that closely. Frankly I wouldn’t want to look in anyones mouth that closely to begin with.
via HOB
There’s no service still between Hoboken and WTC. And PATHtweet has no ETA on when that service will be restored. It’s rather odd that they managed to get HOB to 33rd up and running, they’ve got NWK-WTC and JSQ-33rd, but can’t get HOB to WTC running, even though all of the infrastructure (switches, electrical, etc.) was trashed in the vicinity of HOB, EXP and Newport, and yet the other stations between HOB and WTC (Newport and EXP) are operating for other PATH service.
What am I missing here in regards to the failure to get HOB-WTC service restored?
Maybe the condition of the line between Newport and Exchange Place?
Yeah. Remember that PATH has a rather complicated set of flying junctions at *each* of the spots which looks like a simple “T” on the map. It’s perfectly possible for two sides of the flying junction to be working and the third side to still be damaged.
PATH is extremely hard to protect given that it consists mostly of more-than-100-year-old tunnels below sea level near the shoreline. I can give PATH a lot more leeway than NJT. PATH managed to save its rolling stock.
Due to signals being trashed, they cannot put enough trains in the tunnel between Exchange Place and WTC to allow both services.
Trains are still held at Exchange Place, and there is a dispatcher on the platform who waits for word from the other side of the river that the previous train has made it across before allowing the train enter the tunnel.
Previously, the signal system was set up so that two trains could be in the tunnel at a time.
PATH has gone as far as it can to restore the full network without replacement switches and wayside signalling gear. The announcement said those could be installed in late February. With luck, the full PATH network will be back mid-March…or maybe April 1.
PATH is set to install CBTC on its entire network by 2017. It wouldn’t be wise to install replacement wayside signals that’ll exist for only 4 more years.
alexdombroff@alexanderdombroff.com