PATH Hudson Tubes Temporary and Permanent New Stations Hudson Terminal WTC

Two reports:

[1] Friday December 14 06:37 AM EST

On PATH to Makeover Under Ground Zero

By PETE DONOHUE

A underground passageway with airport-style people movers connecting nearly a dozen subway lines with PATH trains could be on tap for lower Manhattan, officials said yesterday.

Gov. Pataki and Port Authority officials announced that the Port Authority will spend $10 million to plan a new subway-PATH network that would run under the World Trade Center site. A key feature would be a 3,000-foot underground passage that would stretch from the Winter Garden atrium at the World Financial Center all the way east to the Fulton St. station.

Travelers would be able to transfer between the PATH and a slew of lines — the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, A, C, E, N and R. The passageway is part of a $1.5 billion plan to build a PATH station under Ground Zero in the next five years.

Meanwhile, the Port Authority board approved spending $544 million to restore PATH service to downtown, using a temporary entrance on Church St., within two years.

The board also set aside $51 million to install new PATH turnstiles that accept MetroCards — a move Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow championed. The turnstiles could be operating in a few months. "It's one more step towards everyone's goal of a regional transit system," Kalikow said. The turnstiles also would accept computer chip-bearing "smart cards" that could be used by subway, bus, commuter rail and other mass transit riders in the New York-New Jersey region, officials said. http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-12-14/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-135169.asp

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[2] December 14, 2001

Port Authority Approves New PATH Station for Lower Manhattan

By RONALD SMOTHERS

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday authorized spending $544 million to build a temporary PATH station in Lower Manhattan beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center. The temporary terminal could be completed within two years, said officials of the agency. It would help directly reconnect downtown to the rest of the PATH system for the more than 65,000 commuters who used the Lower Manhattan station before the Sept. 11 attack, which destroyed the trade center and the underground network of train tunnels and shopping concourses there.

In addition, the agency's board of commissioners allotted $10 million yesterday to plan an ambitious, permanent PATH terminal in the area — one that would establish better and more connections to city subways, buses and ferry terminals.

Chris Ward, the director of planning and external affairs for the port agency, said planning for the permanent station and all the needed interconnections would require tight coordination with city government and New York State transit agencies. He acknowledged that in the past such regional coordination had been difficult, marred by concerns about maintaining local control.

"What has changed is the attack of Sept. 11 and the loss of the system and the
interrelationships it did have," said Mr. Ward, adding that the agency and New York transit officials were working well together. "That event has laid bare the interrelationship between the New York and New Jersey economies and how neither can survive without the other." Gov. George E. Pataki said earlier yesterday that the plan for a temporary station would help renew the spirit of the city, while the longer- term plan for a permanent station would result in "a downtown that is even stronger and more dynamic" than it was before the attack.

The port agency will work closely with the recently created Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, which is also working on creating a permanent memorial to those killed in the attack, the governor said.

Currently, PATH trains from New Jersey into Manhattan can use only one of the system's two trans-Hudson tubes — the one from Hoboken. That train makes its southernmost Manhattan stop at Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. As part of the temporary terminal plan, the agency would remove water from the tunnel connecting Jersey City with the twin towers site and reopen it to trains, as well as improve access at two other Manhattan PATH stations and two New Jersey stations.

Even as the agency was taking the step to re-establish the PATH terminal, its staff and commissioners were pondering the impact the attack had had on the once vigorous revenues that flowed from its ownership of the twin towers and operation of the region's three airports. Officials involved in the discussions say the board is now considering deferring some $250 million of its $9.5 billion, five-year capital plan. That plan includes everything from dredging the harbor channels and expanding airport facilities to buying new PATH trains and building additional bridge crossings between New York and New Jersey. The agency is projecting a 23 percent decline in operating revenues this year while it expects a nearly 45 percent increase in the cost of security at all of its operations. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/14/nyregion/14PORT.html