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Cuomo And Christie Also Want To Kill Weekend Overnight PATH Service
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 29, 2014
Modified Dec 29, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 29, 2014
Modified Dec 29, 2014
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Besides vetoing Port Authority reforms proposed by both the NY and NJ State Legislatures, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and NJ Governor Chris Christie are aligned against overnight PATH service.
In the report that Cuomo and Christie supported (PDF), one of the ideas is "Eliminating overnight service during weekends (i.e., eliminating service on Friday night/early Saturday and Saturday night/early Sunday)" because it "would produce operational and capital expense savings."
PATH is one of only four heavy-rail systems in America to provide service 24 hours a day for seven days a week; the others are MTA, CTA (which runs only limited service overnight), and the Pennsylvania Port Authority (“PATCO”), which operates a single line from Philadelphia to New Jersey. The PATH’s ridership falls substantially overnight, especially on weeknights, when overnight riders between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. constitute less than 1% of daily riders. The cost of providing this service per passenger rises substantially, from $0.01 to $0.02 per passenger during weekday peak hours to an average of $1.15 per rider overnight....
PATH could achieve operational and capital savings estimated to be at least $10 million per year from stopping service altogether between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on weeknights...
The impact of a service reduction would be limited. Assuming that some riders slightly alter their travel plans to ride the last train before operations cease or the first train after they recommence, approximately one-half of one percent of PATH riders during the time period (just under 1,500) would be affected.129 If PATH decided to offer riders an alternative, bus service for these customers at the cost of $4 per passenger would cost approximately $1.5 million per year.
Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop fumed
, "I think that all too often politicians assume the public is stupid, and this is an example of that. The fact that you’re releasing a report in between Christmas and New Year's, the fact that there are components of it that are nothing more than a mere power grab."
He added, "It’s no secret that a lot of the growth that we’ve seen in areas of Hudson County have been attributed to light rail and PATH," and the fact that there's 24-hour service. "And rather than investing in the system, which they should be doing, this proposal is really counterproductive to New Jersey as a whole."
NJ State Senator John Wisniewski, who has been leading investigations into Bridgegate, suggested that it could be a form of Christie payback toward Fulop and Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer, who are not friends of Chris.
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governor christie
governor cuomo
path
PATH service
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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