Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the past and present operations of the NYC Subway, PATH, and Staten Island Railway (SIRT).

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #42456  by Idiot Railfan
 
NJT riders are upset that their Midtown Direct tickets will only be accepted at the 33d Street station. They say the entrance (which is actually at 32d Street) will be jammed.

However, I have been hearing that the north entrance, at 32d Street, will be closed during the convention, and all riders directed to the south end at 30th Street. Is this true? PATH is is the process of installing many new turnstyles at that station. Could be just to handle the overflow.



http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/in ... 304720.xml
 #42764  by chuchubob
 
The problem has been addressed.

From editorial in Thursday's Star-Ledger:
To ease the disruption, NJ Transit riders will be allowed to transfer at Hoboken to extra PATH trains for a free trip to and from midtown.

The glitch in the original plan involved return trips from Manhattan. The free transfers onto PATH for the trip back to New Jersey were going to be available only at PATH's 33rd Street and World Trade Center stations in the city. But the 33rd Street station was too close to the convention chaos for many riders. They wanted to board at 23rd Street or 14th Street.

NJ Transit and PATH got together yesterday and fixed the problem. Now free transfers will be honored at all the PATH stations in New York City and Hoboken. Everyone benefits from easing the jam at Penn Station during the convention, and the transit agencies did the right thing.
http://www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/editor ... 326720.xml
 #42766  by chuchubob
 
Ron Marsico also has an article in Thursday's Star-Ledger on the subject.
NJ Transit alters convention plan
Riders get free transfer at any PATH station
Thursday, August 12, 2004
BY RON MARSICO
Star-Ledger Staff
NJ Transit riders whose Midtown Direct trains will be rerouted during the Republican National Convention will be able to transfer, free of charge, to PATH trains in Hoboken and at all stops in Manhattan, transit officials said yesterday.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/in ... 326721.xml
 #44343  by communipaw
 
Transit officials brace for 'crush'

Tuesday, August 17, 2004
by Ken Thorbourne
The Jersey Journal

Aside from Madison Square Garden, the busiest piece of real estate in the metropolitan area during the week of the Republican Convention just might be Hoboken Terminal.

During the four days of the convention - Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 - NJ Transit plans to reroute all 100 of its daily Midtown Direct trains to the terminal, where commuters can hop on a PATH train or take a ferry across to Manhattan. The change, aimed at alleviating congestion in the area of the convention, amounts to an addition- al 13,000 daily commuters passing through the Hoboken hub. Already, 23,200 PATH train riders use the terminal on a normal day, officials said.

In addition to the increased number of passengers, PATH workers will have to cope with a system of cross-honoring the rail passes of NJ Transit commuters. An additional 20 employees will be assigned to verify the rail passes of the NJ Transit commuters at the Hoboken Terminal and the PATH's six Manhattan stops, explained Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the PATH trains. The NJ Transit commuters will be ushered through gates, as opposed to the turnstiles used by the PATH riders, Coleman said.

The cross-honoring system will be in place Monday through Friday of convention week, 6 a.m. to midnight, at the Hoboken, World Trade Center, and 14th, 23rd, and 33rd Streets stops, he said.

At the Christopher and 9th Streets stops in Manhattan, the system will be in effect from 6 to 10 a.m. and then again from 4 to 8 p.m., Coleman noted. The number of rush hour trains departing from Hoboken will also be bumped up from one every six minutes to one every five minutes, he said.

New York Waterway, which runs ferry service from Hoboken to the World Financial Center and Pier 11 at the foot of Wall Street, will also honor the NJ Transit rail passes, said Pat Smith, a spokesman for the company, but there are no plans to alter ferry service.

"We are ready to work with New Jersey Transit to handle anything they ask us to handle," Smith said recently. "Our boats leave every 10 or 15 minutes so if there are more people coming in, we can just add extra boats. It is a very flexible and adaptable system."

Hoboken Mayor David Roberts was equally confident transportation officials can muster an adequate response.

"We have every reason to believe that Hoboken can handle the additional commuters," Roberts commented recently. "It wasn't long ago that we had all those people before Midtown Direct was put into service."

NJ Transit train riders will notice a few changes in line with stepped up security for the convention.

A temporary ban on use of overhead luggage racks will be in effect during convention week and all on-board trash receptacles will be sealed, said NJ Transit spokeswoman Janet Hines. Police will also search all the Manhattan-bound trains, she added. Before the trains enter the Amtrak tunnel leading into Penn Station in New York City, on-board inspections will be conducted on the Northeast Corridor trains, which will continue to roll into the midtown train station, Hines said.

As for bus service in and out of the Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal, everything will operate normally, Coleman said. Although security checks will be beefed up at all Hudson River crossings, Coleman said he didn't major delays except at the Lincoln Tunnel.

Journal staff writers Bonnie Friedman and Christian Adamkiewicz contributed to this article.

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.s ... 265450.xml