$321 Million Contract Set to Increase PATH Capacity

By • Jan 19th, 2010 • Category: Blog, News

The German company Siemens says a consortium that it leads has signed a $321 million contract with the Port Authority to modernize and automate the PATH system, increasing rider capacity from 240,000 to 290,000 passengers a day by 2017.

The contract covers the implementation of a new Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) on the system, which Siemens says will reduce intervals between trains, allowing more trains to use the existing infrastructure. The CBTC uses wireless signals to allow trains to communicate data to and from trackside equipment, which will allow PATH operators to know exactly where each train is located in the rail network.

The consortium, which is led by the Siemens Mobility Division, also includes Invensys Rail Corporation (Formerly Safetran Systems) and D/A Builders, LLC, a joint venture between Daidone Electric of Newark and Aldridge Electric of Illinois.

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Alb

    The real priority ought to be making the trains accessible to people in wheelchairs. Ideally, by using ramp rather than malfunction-prone elevators.

    The PATH trains are hardly ever all that crowded. Sometimes, they just seem to be a little crowded because short people are clinging for dear life to the poles and railings near the doors. One easy, cheap way to expand the effective capacity of the trains would be to provide something that short people could hold on to in the middle of the cars.

    But stations like the Grove Street PATH stations are completely inaccessible for people in wheelchairs, and nearly inaccessible for people on crutches, all the time.

    Even if the PATH people would, for example, just make the 14th Street PATH station in Manhattan and the Grove Street PATH station in Jersey City wheelchair accessible, and they added backup elevators in Hoboken and at the WTC, that would probably make a huge difference in people’s lives.

    If money for maintenance is a problem: sell an elevator pass to stroller parents and other non-wheelchair users who want to use the elevators, and use the elevator pass revenue to keep the elevators in good condition.

  • BJC

    I am happy to hear about this – and while the Path service in general i find to be generally reliable – the trains do get QUITE overcrowded at commute times. I do agree that wheelchair/stroller access need to be improved severely.