NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ PATH riders who also use the New York subway soon will no longer have to use two different magnetic cards to pay their fares. By mid-2004, all PATH stations will accept not only the light-rail system's Quick Card, but also the MetroCard used by the subway, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates PATH.

The system may debut Nov. 23 at the reopening of the rebuilt PATH station under the World Trade Center, Coleman said. The $37.1 million system is being installed by Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego, which designed the MetroCard system. It is a first step toward a "one ticket to ride" for users of different mass transit systems, said Richard A. Johnson, president and CEO of Cubic Transportation. "The whole goal of transit right now, the big push, is seamless integration of all types of transit _ they refer to that as intermodal _ in a metropolitan region," Johnson said Friday.

PATH now carries about 160,000 daily passengers between New York and Harrison, Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark. It had carried 260,000 a day before Sept. 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and its station, leading to flooding and other damage at the Exchange Place station in Jersey City. The Exchange Place station reopened in June after $163 million in repairs.

On the Net: Cubic: http://www.cubic.com