When did the PATH get so crowded?

Carly Baldwin By Carly Baldwin The Jersey Journal
on June 27, 2008 at 3:10 PM, updated June 27, 2008 at 3:43 PM

Here's some food for thought on your Friday afternoon commute home:

Transferring from NJ Transit to the PATH at Newark Penn station.

A while back Hoboken Now got the following e-mail from a reader:

You guys should write an article or look into how much more crowded the PATH Train, specifically the WTC Path Train, has gotten over the past six months. I have been using that train to get to work for about three years, and it was always a comfortable ride. It made you appreciate living in NJ rather than the overcrowded city.

The past six months or so, however, the train has gotten ridiculously overcrowded. It is as crowded if not more crowded than the 4, 5, 6 train in the city during rush hour, which is ridiculous. What is the cause of this? I imagine it has something to do with more NJ transit commuters, because it can't be a surplus of jobs that opened up in the city as the job market has shrunk significantly. Anyways, bottom line, the PATH seems ill equipped to handle the high traffic. They increase the price on everyone and then the service gets worse. ADD SOME TRAINS!!!

So, we called the good old Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and asked them today: Why is the PATH so crowded?

Like today's article says, less people are driving into New York City and are instead taking mass transit, said Port Authority spokesperson Mark LaVorgna. "It's not just the PATH; NJ Transit is also seeing a spike in the number of people riding."

Just how much more crowded are the trains?

World Trade Center PATH station saw an average weekday increase of 7 percent in ridership this year, said LaVorgna. Seven percent is a BIG jump -- that's 49,000 people a day in and out of WTC, 3,000 more riders a day than in 2007.

What is the PATH doing to address this?

"The system is running at capacity; we are running at the maximum number of trains the system can handle right now," said LaVorgna.

But there may be light at the end of the (PATH) tunnel. The Port Authority is commencing a $3.3 billion dollar overhaul of the PATH system, which will allow for up to 25 percent more capacity, specifically on the jam-packed WTC line.

"The current PATH train has seven cars but we will be extending the platforms to make those fit 10-car trains," said LaVorgna. "And we'll be adding trains to run more frequently to handle the higher ridership."

Just don't hold your breath. You won't see 10-car trains for a couple more years, said LaVorgna. And 10-car trains can only go to WTC; stations on the 33rd Street line are too small to accommodate them.

In March, PATH famously raised the single fare from $1.50 to $1.75; the increase is meant to help pay for part of the expansion project.