(The following story by Judy Rife appeared on the Times Herald-Record website on October 18.)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The Port Authority will spend $500 million on new signals that will boost capacity of its crowded PATH system by 20 percent.
The new signals will eventually translate into more frequent PATH service — a boon for commuters who have complained for years about the wait between trains, particularly prior to 7:30 a.m. when headways stretch to 10 minutes.
The improvements, coupled with the $809 million replacement of PATH’s 340-car fleet and the installation of “next train” technology on platforms, represent the first significant overhaul of the system’s infrastructure in almost 40 years.
“The sooner the Port Authority starts improving the PATH system the better,” said William Cano of Cornwall, whose Port Jervis line train rarely arrives in concert with his PATH connection at Hoboken Terminal.
Marc La Vorgna, a Port Authority spokesman, said the technology for the existing signal system dates to the early 1900s and limits PATH’s ability to increase capacity to meet growing demands for service. PATH’s two lines, to the former World Trade Center and to 33rd Street, carry about 50,000 people an hour in the peak hours — roughly 16,400 of them from Hoboken.
The new signals will allow PATH trains to run closer together, reducing headways and increasing frequency as well as improving on-time performance. NJ Transit upgraded signals in Amtrak’s tunnel to Penn Station to increase capacity when it opened the Secaucus transfer.
La Vorgna said the PATH project will not be completed until 2014, but the Port Authority expects commuters will see benefits from the new signals long before then.
The new cars will begin arriving next year as will “next train” technology on television monitors on station platforms. Real-time information about delays that affect the region’s entire transportation network also will be transmitted inside the new cars and on platforms. “The more convenient mass transit becomes, the more likely more people will use it,” Cano said. “With all the talk of congestion pricing, gridlock and global warming, this will be a definite improvement for PATH.”