Railroad Forums 

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

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #840176  by blasito
 
Does anyone know how PATH handles the special event services for Red Bull Arena? Are they running extra trains or just re-routing existing service to deal with the crowds?

So far I am loving the new stadium and the great convenience the PATH offers me to get home. I used to have to take buses into and out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal to go to Giants Stadium from Jersey City, and it would take at least an hour, usually closer to two. Now I am home in 40 minutes.

I have not yet attended an event at the Prudential Center, but am curious if there are similar crowds on the PATH before and after games, and how PATH handles the service.

Going to the game last Saturday the train was completely packed, and since I was on the first car, I could see it took almost 5 minutes for them to clear the platform through that one staircase. I guess lack of money and a wait and see attitude kept them from upgrading the station at the same time the stadium was built.

The past few times I have taken PATH home from Harrison after a game at Red Bull Arena, they were running some WTC bound trains to JSQ and then taking them out of service. I have no problem with the idea of shuttle service to JSQ to help relieve over crowding at Harrison, but it seems really strange not to explain it as such.

I have read others comment on soccer websites that it took over an hour to get out of Harrison, but I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Maybe I was just lucky since I go right after the game ends.
 #842685  by JCGUY
 
The walk from the stadium to Newark is at least 20 minutes, probably closer to 30 if you are on the toddling side. The post-match PATH service is awful. This is not the result of poor station planning, as RBA did not exist when the station was built in 252 B.C. You just have an area that has outrun it's public infrastructure, which is generally the case all along the PATH system. PATH does not run extra trains, and so you have many thousands of people squeezing on to regular nighttime or weekend service trains running on their usual schedule. Moreover, the station itself is simply not designed for crowds and cannot handle a surge of a few hundred, let alone a few thousand people. The station has a single entry point for each platform, each with just a few turnstiles. This state of affairs is unpleasant but not catastrophic when it comes to getting to a game, as arrivals tend to be spaced out. The problem is with leaving a game. Soccer is not like baseball or football. Matches are relatively short and nearly 100% of the crowd stays for the entire game. There's not much reason to linger after a match, and so just about 90% of the people will be out of there within 5-15 minutes of a match end. As a result, you have many thousands descending on the PATH at once, and the station is simply unable to handle it. Those are just the facts. Ideally, (i) you'd have the PA bank a half dozen trains for post-match travel, (ii) have three entrances to the station, including to both sides of whatever that street is there (Frank Rogers?) (iii) widen the platforms, (iv) do the ADA elevator thing. Not that any of this will be happening any time soon, as I have no idea how you'd finance that.
 #843196  by nyrmetros
 
Well they actually do have plans to rennovate the station in the coming years. But I digress on the walk from RBA to Newark. A brisk walk was timed at 10 minutes last week. At any rate, I wonder what % of a sold out 25, 000 capacity stadium take the PATH, vs NJT @ Newark, or just drive.
 #843339  by JPhurst
 
I've gone to a couple of games. The first time I walked over to Newark for some post game drinks. The second time I walked straight to the PATH at Harrison. It's a bit crowded in the stairwell but I was able to get up and get on the first train in a couple of minutes with no problem. Fans all seemed to congregate on the part of the platform near the stairs so we just walked up about 50 feet and got on a car by the front that was nearly empty.


Not sure how many fans take it. At least one Red Bull player takes it!

http://www.silive.com/red-bulls/index.s ... bulls.html
 #843459  by JCGUY
 
The distance from Newark Penn to RBA is just about exactly one mile, not counting getting off the Newark Penn platforms, etc. If you can walk that in 10 minutes, I'm impressed. The PATH situation at Harrison is tolerable at poorly attended weekday games, though I'm not sure if they'll be many of these now that the team in drawing well again, but when the stadium is about half full or better, it's a crush.
 #843767  by nyrmetros
 
JCGUY wrote:The distance from Newark Penn to RBA is just about exactly one mile, not counting getting off the Newark Penn platforms, etc. If you can walk that in 10 minutes, I'm impressed.

Guess my groups walks fast. lol