Travelers, rejoice. Upgrades are coming to Newark airport and to four PATH stations, thanks to an expensive vote at Thursday’s Port Authority commissioners meeting.

Fresh off a replacing Newark Liberty airport’s aging Terminal A, commissioners approved projects to replace the elderly, failing AirTrain monorail and to begin the planning process to replace Terminal B.

The board’s approval allows the projects to proceed. Contracts will be awarded for engineering and construction at later dates.

Commissioners also approved a $78 million project to alter four stations on PATH’s Newark to World Trade Center line to allow use of nine-car trains. Now, PATH is limited to running shorter eight-car trains.

Record growth on PATH and at the airports is driving the projects. The authority’s three major airports handled record passenger volumes during the first nine months of the year, more than any other January to September on record, said Rick Cotton, Authority executive director

“In September, PATH had just over 285,000 daily riders. PATH has never handled that level in its history,” Cotton said. “In September, there were 10 days ridership exceeded (the) 300,000 mark. It underlies the importance of capacity improvement.”

Construction is expected to start in 2021 and the first nine-car train is scheduled to roll in the second quarter of 2022, said Clarelle DeGraffe, PATH general manager.

The trio of projects was among those included in the amendment of the authority’s 10-year capital plan, which was approved last month, along with a toll, fare and fee increase to help fund it.

The proposed Terminal Two would replace Terminal B, which underwent a refreshing 10 years ago. No price tag was attached to the Terminal B replacement project, but the new Terminal One has a $2.7 billion budget. Commissioners authorized spending $29 million for planning for Terminal Two.

Part of the funding, $35 million, would come from passenger fees the authority now collects. The authority plans to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to use those fees.

Besides age, a new Terminal Two would help the authority cope with record numbers of travelers using the airport. While passenger records have been broken, it’s come at a cost -- Newark Airport has been ranked dead last among airports in various customer service surveys for the nation’s major airports.

The AirTrain vote comes 10 months after Gov. Phil Murphy called for replacement of the aging, 23-year-old monorail that moves 33,000 travelers and employees between NJ Transit’s airport station and the terminals.

In January, Murphy argued that just refurbishing it isn’t enough because it would cost more than $400 million to simply keep the AirTrain running for another 10 years.

Newark Airport’s monorail was designed with a 25-year lifespan, taking it’s useful life to 2021. The monorail has had service interruptions during its lifespan due to power failures, accidents and maintenance. Trains have limited passenger capacity.

The estimated cost of Newark’s AirTrain is $2.05 billion, the same as an AirTrain project approved for New York’s LaGuardia airport on Thursday. Authority officials would not say whether Newark’s AirTrain would be similar one now running at JKF airport or a different design.

Officials expect to award a construction contract in 2021 and it would be completed in 2024.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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