PATH adds four Newark-New York trains

NEWARK, N.J. -- Four new PATH commuter trains will run next week between Newark and midtown Manhattan to help ease the crush of riders who used to take trains to the World Trade Center and Jersey City, the Associated Press said.

Two additional trains will run from Newark's Penn Station to 33rd Street in Manhattan between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., and two more trains will go from New York to Newark between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. The four, seven-car trains will carry a total of 3,500 additional commuters, the agency said.

The new service begins on Monday, December 3.

About 81,000 weekday riders take the PATH line between New York and Newark, and ridership has increased 150 percent since September 11, the agency said. Commuters to the World Trade Center were diverted by the closure of the Manhattan station and of the Exchange Place station in Jersey City. The collapse of the towers has also caused businesses to relocate from lower Manhattan, permanently changing some commuting patterns, transit officials have said.

The line into Midtown has experienced a 150 percent increase in riders since the terrorist attacks, said Ronald Shiftan, acting executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the PATH. While the agency's long-term goal is to restore service to Lower Manhattan, he said, officials wanted to make riders more comfortable in the short term.

With the loss of the station beneath the twin towers, thousands of
commuters headed for Lower Manhattan have been diverted to smaller stations north of the towers that previously had been used solely by the New Jersey commuters headed for Midtown.

Until recently, increasing the number of trains on those routes was hampered by equipment limitations, Mr. Ledja said. The agency has said that a new World Trade Center station won't be built for two years.