(The following article by Jason Fink was posted on the Jersey Journal website on November 17.)
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — More than two years after the PATH station beneath the World Trade Center was obliterated in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a new terminal will open Sunday, restoring service to Lower Manhattan in what will be the first major step in a long rebuilding process.
The temporary station – a permanent World Trade Center stop will open in 2006 – will be a bare-bones operation, lacking the sprawling retail space of the old station, but it will provide the first rail link into Lower Manhattan from New Jersey since the attacks. It will accommodate up to 50,000 daily riders, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the system.
It will also serve as a crucial link to Jersey City’s Downtown business district, with trains running from the Exchange Place station on the waterfront, which re-opened in June. Direct service to Lower Manhattan from Hoboken will also be restored.
Before Sept. 11, 2001, approximately 67,000 people boarded trains at the WTC station on weekdays. But with none of the office space planned for the WTC site yet built, ridership at the temporary station is expected to be well below what it was before.
The $323 million temporary station, financed by a combination of federal and Port Authority funds, as well as insurance proceeds, was built in about 16 months. Trains will run into the “pit” of Ground Zero, with an entrance at street level.
“When the temporary World Trade Center PATH station opens on Nov. 23, it will become the first public space to open within the World Trade Center site,” said Anthony Coscia, board chairman of the Port Authority. “For the first time since the horrible and heroic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the general public will be able to walk the site.”
The permanent station will be part of the proposed World Trade Center Transportation Hub and will include underground connections to three New York City subway lines and other pedestrian connections to several more, as well as access to ferry terminals along the Hudson River.
The attacks two years ago not only crushed the WTC station beneath the fallen towers but also caused significant damage by flooding the tunnels that connect it to Exchange Place, which was also closed down.
Workers replaced all the materials in the tunnels as well as the tracks and electrical equipment at what is now an expanded Exchange Place that has served as a turn-around station for trains traveling between Newark and Hoboken since June.
Port Authority officials have said no one was trapped in PATH trains on the morning of Sept. 11, though there were reportedly some close calls. The day the new station opens, Gov. James E. McGreevey and his New York counterpart, Gov. George E. Pataki, will ride in on the same train that was the last to leave the WTC station on morning of the attacks.
The station is the first in what will be a series of milestones along the way to rebuilding the 16-acre WTC site, including the construction of a memorial to the victims of the attack, which Port Authority officials say may be ready by late 2006.
Around the same time, the Freedom Tower – the 1,776-foot spire that will anchor the site’s redevelopment – will also be finished, said officials from the Port Authority, which owned the Twin Towers and whose offices were there.