By Kevin J. O’Toole and Rick Cotton

The PATH system was cutting edge at the beginning of the 20th century, engineering its trans-Hudson tubes before the Pennsylvania Railroad brought its tunnel from New Jersey into Pennsylvania Station. Ensuring PATH meets the needs of 21st century riders – 81.7 million riders in 2018 – requires both a substantial investment and a commitment by the Port Authority to bring a 110-year-old system into the 21st century. We are making that commitment.

In 2018, PATH installed countdown clocks system-wide, launched the RidePATH app and installed cell phone service in all its underground stations. These are valued, long-wanted 21st century customer-experience improvements. But knowing when the next train is arriving isn’t enough if trains and platforms are overcrowded and trains are too often delayed.

Improving service reliability, running more and longer trains to both increase system capacity and to reduce wait times, and improving how information flows to customers must be PATH’s top priorities. Talking about change is not enough; PATH customers need to see real-world, measurable results.

The Port Authority is launching a brand-new and ambitious PATH Improvement Plan that will leverage more than a $1 billion of Port Authority investment to deliver results. Let us repeat that – $1 billion of Port Authority investment in the vital mass-transit link between New Jersey and New York. As PATH moves more passengers with rail, it is taking vehicles off roads, reducing strain on other regional infrastructure and affirming the Port Authority’s commitment to be a national leader in sustainability.

There are three components to the agency’s robust investment in PATH: Add capacity to the system, reduce delays, and of equal importance, enhance the customer experience.

Capacity increase

It will come in two stages, with a 10 percent increase on two lines by this fall and then in three years, a big 40 percent increase on the Newark to World Trade Center line with a 20 percent increase on the rest of the lines. Let us explain:

The first phase of the PATH Improvement Plan will increase capacity by 10 percent during the morning and evening rush on the Newark to World Trade Center and the Journal Square to 33rd Street lines. This increase will be fully in effect by September of this year.

PATH’s new signal system allows trains to run closer together. With the old system, trains could not run closer than four minutes apart. The new system allows trains to run every three minutes. To achieve shorter wait times, more trains are also required. Through more careful management of its rolling stock and the hiring of additional train crews, PATH is adding, this fall, two train sets from its existing fleet during the morning and evening rush on the system’s two busiest lines.

The second and more dramatic phase of PATH’s ambitious plan to increase capacity is made possible by three separate, key capital investments totaling $1 billion: PATH’s new signal system, purchase of an additional 72 new rail cars to be delivered between 2021 and 2022, and major reconstruction work on two stations.

These initiatives will enable PATH to run 9-car trains (up from 8 cars) on the Newark to World Trade Center line, and to run substantially more trains per-hour during peak periods. As a result, riders will see a huge capacity expansion of 40 percent on the Newark to World Trade Center line by the end of 2022. PATH will be able to carry 18,000 additional passengers during the morning and evening rush between Newark and the World Trade Center. Capacity on PATH’s remaining lines will increase by 20 percent.

Station modifications at Grove Street, where the platform will be expanded, and at Exchange Place, where additional cross corridors will be added, are needed to enable nine-car train sets. Longer trains running more frequently will reduce crowding on platforms and in cars. Planning for 10-car train sets will follow.

Reducing delays

The agency is also launching a $50 million set of major new initiatives to address the root causes of system delays. These initiatives are highly focused on achieving meaningful and measurable improvement of service. PATH will develop improvement metrics and, beginning in September, those metrics will be published quarterly.

PATH has identified six areas at the core of system delays: signal issues, switch failures, car equipment failures, track conditions, sick passengers and unattended bags. Within the next 12 to 18 months, as the new PATH Improvement Plan is implemented, customers will start to see improvements, with PATH committed to full implementation of these measures in 30 months.

Wide-ranging changes in processes, purchases of new testing and detection equipment, as well as stepped-up purchase of key track-bed components, and maintenance will address signal and switch issues, car equipment failures and track conditions.

PATH will also change its protocols to provide assistance more quickly and more efficiently to its customers when they become ill in the PATH system. Deploying emergency responders more quickly, as well as launching a public service campaign encouraging passengers who are feeling ill to remain on the platform where help can reach them more quickly, will reduce system-wide delays.

Unattended bags left on platforms and in stations that must be checked for explosives are another cause of delays. PATH will improve the deployment of Port Authority Police and K-9 units at stations during peak operational hours to provide faster response times to reports of unattended baggage.

Customer experience

The Port Authority will aggressively take action to improve the customer experience, utilizing best practices and embracing new technologies. These actions will include:

Installing new fare technology to enable payments by smartphone and by credit card and eliminate the need for separate fare cards.

Improving in-station announcements and PATHAlerts and installing digital kiosks at every station to provide customers with transparent, timely and actionable information.

Reducing platform crowding through active platform management and establishing clear protocols for the number of passengers who can safely be on platforms.

PATH, in its first iteration as the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, began fare service in 1908. The age of the PATH system is not an excuse, but a challenge. More than 110 years ago, PATH became possible because it embraced then-new, 20th century technology and engineering. In the 21st century, PATH can be made better, more efficient, more reliable and more customer-focused.

The work and a commitment to increased capacity, less crowding, fewer delays and improved customer experience begins now.

Kevin J. O’Toole is the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Rick Cotton is the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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