(rshsdepot) Secaucus (NJ) Transfer opening delayed

["jdent1_@_optonline.net" <jdent1@optonline.net>]

From the Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2002/05/21/jrsecauc.htm 
May 21, 2002

Secaucus transfer delayed due to Sept. 11 aftermath

   By Judy Rife
   Times Herald-Record
   jrife_@_th-record.com
   
   Secaucus, N.J. =96 NJ Transit, overwhelmed by the post-9/11 
shift in commuting patterns, may delay opening the Secaucus 
transfer by as much as a year.
   Ken Miller, a spokesman for NJ Transit, said yesterday that 
the agency will not open the transfer in December as originally 
scheduled. And it may be forced to link the opening of Secaucus 
to that of the new temporary PATH station at the former World 
Trade Center in December 2003.
   "Our current ridership surges on New York-bound trains do 
not give us enough room to handle the number of [potential] 
passengers transferring at Secaucus,'' said Miller, explaining 
the new PATH station will ease some of the overcrowding on its 
trains.
   The new $450 million transfer in the Meadowlands will connect 
11 rail lines and give commuters from Orange and Rockland counties, 
as well as many parts of New Jersey, the option of transferring 
to trains bound for Penn Station in midtown Manhattan, for the 
first time, or continuing to Hoboken as they do now.
   Metro-North Railroad and NJ Transit have committed millions 
of dollars to upgrading stations, expanding parking lots and 
buying new equipment, in anticipation of a surge in ridership 
once Secaucus opens. Metro-North, which now has about 3,000 
riders on its Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines, projects 
a 60 percent increase in ridership over five years as commuters 
abandon their cars or buses to take the train to midtown. The 
railroad contracts with NJ Transit to operate its west-of-Hudson 
service and has contributed $54 million to Secaucus.
   "We're disappointed, of course, but we will continue to work 
with NJ Transit to open Secaucus as quickly as possible," said 
Margie Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North.
   Before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, NJ 
Transit's three lines that have always traveled into Penn 
Station carried 33,700 commuters during the morning rush. 
By Oct. 1, that number had jumped to 48,500. Today, it is 
44,000.
   The sudden increases pushed the already notoriously 
overcrowded trains, on the Northeast Corridor, Morris and 
Essex and North Jersey Coast lines, to 145 percent of capacity. 
On many days, conductors don't collect tickets because people 
are packed so tightly into the cars that they can't get through. 
   These are the trains to which commuters on the Port Jervis 
and Pascack Valley lines and other New Jersey lines will transfer 
when Secaucus opens.
   "People ask why we can't add more cars to the trains and we 
can't because the trains would be longer than the platforms at 
Penn Station,'' said Miller, adding NJ Transit is using every 
piece of equipment it owns pending delivery of hundreds of new 
cars.
   Amtrak, which owns the only tunnels beneath the Hudson River 
to Penn Station, allowed NJ Transit a modest increase in their 
use after 9/11. The two railroads are negotiating another 
increase that would permit NJ Transit, once new equipment arrives, 
new signal systems are installed and Secaucus opens, to run more 
trains more frequently into midtown Manhattan.
   Miller, however, said the agency doesn't know exactly when or 
how all these disparate pieces will come together to make Secaucus 
work. As a result, it will be analyzing changes in commuting 
patterns and train capacity on a continuing basis to determine 
exactly when it can open the new transfer and get everybody 
through the tunnels effectively.
   "The biggest piece of that [equation] is the WTC station,'' 
he said.
   Thousands of the NJ Transit commuters riding into Penn Station 
today used to transfer at Newark to PATH trains to the World Trade 
Center. Now they are staying on NJ Transit and using city subways, 
buses and shoe leather to reach their offices downtown rather 
than switching to the remaining PATH line to 33rd Street =96 and 
then getting on a subway.
   Thousands more have been relocated to midtown. How many of them 
will eventually return downtown is anybody's guess =96 and a key 
reason that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has moved 
so quickly to rebuild the PATH system and prevent it from becoming 
an excuse for companies to relocate. At least 20 percent of the 
600,000 jobs in lower Manhattan were held by people who live west 
of the Hudson River.
   More than 60,000 commuters took PATH to the World Trade Center 
before 9/11 and 25,000 took PATH to 33rd Street. Now, 41,000 use 
the 33rd Street line and some of its stations are so crowded that 
people can't enter and exit at the same time.
   Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said contractors 
have been on the $300 million job since January, gutting and 
repairing the tunnels. As soon as the remaining debris is cleared 
from the pit =96 as the World Trade Center site is called =96 later 
this month, work will begin on the station.
   The Exchange Place station, in New Jersey, will come on line 
first, in June 2003, and the World Trade Center station, in 
December 2003. Exchange Place is not only the turnout for World 
Trade Center trains but also the gateway to New Jersey's "Gold 
Coast" of corporate offices and a destination for many reverse 
commuters from Manhattan. Stations along the 33rd Street line 
will also be renovated to boost their capacity.
   "We've written incentives into the contract to get the work 
done faster but how much faster when it's an already accelerated 
schedule, I don't know,'' said Colemen. "Regardless, we're 
committed to those dates."
   Without paying a premium for fast-tracking, the Port Authority 
estimates the work would have taken upwards of four years rather 
than two to complete. In the interim, it has also spent millions 
to build new docks on both sides of the Hudson so that NY Waterway 
could expand ferry services and relieve PATH =96 and it has. Almost 
twice as many commuters, 28,000, are taking ferries from various 
points in New Jersey to the city since Sept. 11.
   Meanwhile, Miller said, construction of the Secaucus transfer 
remains on schedule and shouldn't be an issue in its opening at 
any date. The work, which began in 1995, has been largely 
invisible because it is done at night to avoid disrupting the 
400 trains that pass through Secaucus every day.
   



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