PATH Ridership Continues its Slide in First Quarter of 2010
By Jon Whiten • Jun 2nd, 2010 • Category: Blog, News
The Port Authority says that PATH ridership declined by 1.9 percent during the first three months of 2010, from 17.4 million passengers during the same period of 2009 to 17.1 million passengers this year. The 2009 figure was already a 2.3 percent drop from the same time period in 2008; that had been the first decrease since 2003.
Officials from the transit agency say ridership — along with truck traffic, vehicle crossings and port traffic — is continuing to take a beating from the ongoing recession, but they say the agency’s financial health “remain[s] sound” due to two straight years of zero-growth operating budgets, staff reductions and the prioritization and scaling back of its long-term capital program.
“The Port Authority is not recession proof, and the agency’s traffic volumes continue to lag the nation’s economic recovery,” executive director Chris Ward says in a statement. “That is why we will continue to take the fiscal measures necessary to ensure the agency meets its obligations to the region on a sound financial footing.”
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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