Hurricane Sandy and PATH

[lirr42]

No, i mean, trains have not run between HOB and newport since the storm. Wondering why...

The signaling system and all have not been up to full capacity since the storm especially around Hoboken. Not running HOB-WTC service allows them to operate a lot less trains into and out of both HOB and WTC. And having HOB-WTC as the line not running is kinda okay because that one as the easiest travel alternatives (HBLR to NPT/EXP, subway downtown to WTC).

[lirr42]

PATH Service is being restored 24/7 to most stations beginning Wednesday, 09 January.

PATH service operates as follows:
Monday to Friday, DAY 5a-10p
Hoboken-33rd Street
Journal Square-33rd Street
Newark-World Trade Center

Monday to Friday, NIGHT 10p-5a
Saturday and Sunday, All Day
Newark-Journal Square
Journal Square-33rd Street via Hoboken
(no service to: Exchange Place, WTC)


Hoboken-World Trade Center and late night/weekend service to Exchange Place and World Trade Center remains suspended until further notice. The main delay on the HOB-WTC line is that they are waiting on some switch and signal parts from a third-party manufacturer. NJTransit continues to cross-honor tickets on the HBLR between Hoboken and Exchange Place until further notice.

[lirr42]

The Port Authority has updated its website to say that Hoboken-World Trade Center service and weekend/late night service to EXP and WTC would be restored following the arrival of some replacement switch parts, which are expected in late February. So late February-early March is when we can finally expect New York's public transportation system to be all back to normal following Hurricane Sandy (as Mason Substation, which supplies overhead wire power to NJTransit's Hoboken Terminal is expected to be repaired around this same time).

[BigUglyCat]

So late February-early March is when we can finally expect New York's public transportation system to be all back to normal following Hurricane Sandy.

With the significant exception of South Ferry station. The MTA is now saying it might take 3 years for that one.

[lirr42]

Right you are, that one slipped my mind. New Jersey will be all back on track, at least.

[25Hz]

So there was a problem aside from signals.

Regarding south ferry - 3 year old station gets flooded, may be 3 more till it re-opens. That has to really suck for SIF riders. I wonder if the old loop station is useable?

[BigUglyCat]

So there was a problem aside from signals.

Regarding south ferry - 3 year old station gets flooded, may be 3 more till it re-opens. That has to really suck for SIF riders. I wonder if the old loop station is useable?

Reports say the old loop station was damaged also, and the curve extenders were removed prior to the storm. Doesn't look good.

[Amtrak7]

Normal weekday schedule resumes tomorrow. Still no weekend WTC service.

[25Hz]

So there was a problem aside from signals.

Regarding south ferry - 3 year old station gets flooded, may be 3 more till it re-opens. That has to really suck for SIF riders. I wonder if the old loop station is useable?

Reports say the old loop station was damaged also, and the curve extenders were removed prior to the storm. Doesn't look good.

Since the station is much simpler in design and much smaller i think it'd be possible to have it operational in the mean, unless it was catastrophically damaged. It is very close to the river & in fill so who knows.

[lirr42]

So there was a problem aside from signals.

Regarding south ferry - 3 year old station gets flooded, may be 3 more till it re-opens. That has to really suck for SIF riders. I wonder if the old loop station is useable?

Reports say the old loop station was damaged also, and the curve extenders were removed prior to the storm. Doesn't look good.

Since the station is much simpler in design and much smaller i think it'd be possible to have it operational in the mean, unless it was catastrophically damaged. It is very close to the river & in fill so who knows.

The Old South Ferry station is a mess and was always a mess and a hamper on operations even before the hurricane.

It's not ADA accessible, it can only load/unload out of the first 5 cars, it needs platform gap fillers which have been removed and would have to be replaced with new ones, and the old station also has a lot less thruput than the current set up does, so there would be less trains (which would not go well with the big increase in ridership of later years).

And the old station is not actually simpler in design. The loop always had a weird set up with signalling, the new station was much easier to get trains in and out of for both the MTA and the passengers.

And that station was completely obliterated too both from the hurricane and a couple years of neglect as well.

For now walking to Rector Street/taking the bus to a (1) station/taking the (4)(5) at Bowling Green and transferring at Fulton Street is the most effective option at this stage. It's best to let NYCT devote as many resources as possible to fixing the new station as quickly as possible.

But this is the PATH forum, remember.

[25Hz]

Oh, i'm aware of the layout, have used it many times. I mean it's simpler with one set of stairs vs multiple escalators & stairs and the station itself is basically a (relatively) small curved rectangle. Just an idea.

[25Hz]

I wonder if it would be worth it for PA to dig down and put drains around all their flood-prone spots, such as the 15th street shaft, hoboken station, exchange place, etc etc etc, connect it to high powered pumps powered by generators , pump the water back out, kind of like a bilge pump on a ship....

[lirr42]

I wonder if it would be worth it for PA to dig down and put drains around all their flood-prone spots, such as the 15th street shaft, hoboken station, exchange place, etc etc etc, connect it to high powered pumps powered by generators , pump the water back out, kind of like a bilge pump on a ship....

A good idea, but my primary concern with that would be you'd need some pretty big pumps to get out the water at the same rate it flows in. When that storm surge comes in those tunnels fill up fast and my big concern is that with a really big storm the pumps will become overwhelmed and not perform their function.

[25Hz]

I think they could figure it out. You'd take a gallons per second estimate from a 18 foot surge, then see what size piping and pumps you'd need, then design a backup/uninterruptible power supply system. One thing they could do is take a large Diesel generator and place it and a fuel tank well above that 18 foot level. It might work to place a bank of generators at one location and wire up redundant direct connections to each pump.

If they did it right they would be able to keep those spots dry, or at least keep them from filling with water in combination with sandbags.

At exchange place they really need to construct walls with passages that they can easily close up around the escalator headhouse or at the very least some kind of mechanism to seal off the doors.

[Martin Baumann]

Full service on all PATH lines including weekends resumed March 1st