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PATH transit line may be extended to Newark Airport
Let’s do it! And as for the LIRR it connects to the JFK AirTrain at Jamaica which connects to all the separate terminals at the airport. The A-Train also connects to the AirTrain.
What we need to do is connect Amtrak with JFK via the AirTrain.
It’s not like they’ve been talking about this for the last 40 years.
Tim, it appears that extension is not just engineering and building new track beyond the current end of track. According to the study, the project will entail new track to the existing Northeast Corridor station, BUT also includes improvements to Newark Penn Station (new escalators and elevators) and the construction of a commuter (non-air traveler) parking garage with associated access roads and highway improvements. It should also be noted there’s no open land south of the end of track to the airport for the tracks to go so the tracks will pretty much be on a viaduct for most of those 2 miles.
$750 Million a mile!
Betcha, building a, connected by transit, moderate to high density village, town, city where Newark Airport is, and another airport with the best technologically enabled, access, build it some-where, any-where else nearby, would gain max. value from (the close to the Big Apple) property of the current Newark Airport?
Might have to use eminent=domain laws to get the property for the new Newark Air Terminal?
Might even make a profit?
Extending PATH to EWR makes perfect sense, as does extending the Astoria line to LGA. But why should it take ten years?
Only in NY. That’s what should have been done in the first place, rather than the huge expense of the people mover to the NEC.
Same with Kennedy. The LIRR should have been extended into the airport enabling a one seat ride to NYP. Then there’s LaGuarida.
Seems the NIMBYS won’t allow an entension of the Artoria Line to the airport. What about a Flushing Line extension?
How in the world does it cost $1.5 BILLION(!) to extend the line 2 miles?
Might be cheaper to move EWK to the Meadowlands. Move over, Jimmy Hoffa.
this should’ve been done MANY years ago. Surely there has to be some good way this could be sped up.
Extending PATH to EWR should have been one of the first things the infamous Port Authority did once they assumed control of the former Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. Now, 50 years later, some genius comes up with the idea! I agree that it shouldn’t take 10 years to build it, either. About 1/3 of the route already exists as storage tracks beyond Newark-Penn. Issue, I suppose, is where and how to relocate the storage tracks. Wouldn’t be surprised to learn of a fancy new storage yard and repair shop being part of the plan.
Maybe the fact was omitted because Trains Newswire readers already know it, but before “PATH was established in 1962…” it was the Hudson & Manhattan RR, which first began operation in 1907 and later became a subsidiary of the PRR. Building to EWR airport is a good idea. It’s pricey, but the costs will keep increasing the longer such a project is delayed. The US needs more rail-to-air connections where warranted.
Don’t count on this happening. It has been suggested before. If the NIMBYs don’t stop it the taxi drivers’ union will. The latter is the reason the idea was scuttled earlier.
Before the Newark Airport Peoplemover was built, I always thought this would be the best option. But the peoplemover ending at a new station at the NEC was pretty much a waste. Now the problem is compounded.
Taxis? I’ve ridden the peoplemover from the airport to the NEC to downtown Newark. It would have been cheaper to take a cab for what they charge (I was with my wife and 2 kids for this trip) and easier too what with our bags and a stroller. Moreover, there was nearly nobody else using the system. A huge long NJT train loaded to the gills stopped to take us to Newark, and took on us and maybe one other passenger. I wondered if our fares even covered the cost of brakes and the energy to get back up to speed, to say nothing of the longer schedule required that everyone on board every train that ever stops there takes.
I think the best solution at this point, and what should have been done initially when they built the people mover, was to build the people mover to downtown Newark. Imagine how convenient that would be. People appreciate the magic of the “one seat ride” and some will endure 1 transfer but not 2, and many destinations with the current configuration require 3 or more transfers! Running the people mover to downtown Newark will connect it with PATH just as extending PATH will connect it with the people mover. So no advantage gained there. But extending peoplemover to downtown WILL connect it with one transfer to ALL NJTransit trains at Newark Penn, plus ALL Amtrak trains running south of New York instead of just a few, both lines of the Newark City Subway, numerous bus routes that serve Newark Penn, as well as downtown Newark itself.
Given my experience, I can’t imagine extending PATH to the peoplemover (unless it goes directly into the airport just as the peoplemover does, but why duplicate things?) will do much if anything to encourage Newark business people to use the new transit link to get to the airport over whatever method they currently use.
This guys says the exact same thing I’ve been saying for a decade… LAWRENCE D SELL from FLORIDA said: Only in NY. That’s what should have been done in the first place, rather than the huge expense of the people mover to the NEC. Same with Kennedy. The LIRR should have been extended into the airport enabling a one seat ride to NYP. Then there’s LaGuarida. Seems the NIMBYS won’t allow an entension of the Artoria Line to the airport. What about a Flushing Line extension? Extend PATH to EWR and eliminate the pathetic toy called AirTrain. The Walt Disney World Florida Monorail system has bigger, more wider, comfortable and less wobbly cars. Although the JFK AirTrain is better quality wise, the LIRR Rockaway Branch reactivation would have eliminated the need for AirTrain with a one seat ride from multiple destinations ie: Direct from Penn Station, Jamaica & Atlantic Terminal via the long abandoned Woodhaven Station/Junction connecting to the existing right of way to Howard Beach/JFK A Train Subway Station. The entire route was LIRR owned until the A Train Subway bought part of it. The rarely utilized middle subway tracks could be converted/reconnected to LIRR from Liberty Junction to Howard Beach/JFK with a separate center island platform between the middle tracks within the existing subway station facility this abiding by regulations for both modes of transportation.
For those who want a little more insight into this development, go the excellent website TransportationNation (a part of NPR affiliate WNYC) and dial up the article “Christie’s Port point man plays all sides”. The entire piece is well worth a read. The Christie administration and the PANYNJ are caught in a what is indeed a very tangled web. And it is all coming out as fallout from what some in the media are labeling “Bridgegate”.
But the last four paragraphs shed some VERY interesting light on why the PATH extension to EWR is now on the front burner, or so it seems. And it involves yet another airport!
If we have learned anything from the “Bridge Gate” scandal, it is that something is very rotten at the NJ-NY Port Authority. PATH has scores of high salaried political patronage appointees, has major conflicts of interest in terms of transit and commercial development, conducts and reports out phony traffic studies, etc. The agency must be thoroughly investigated by an independent prosecutor and restructured to make sure it is dedicated to advancing the public good before any PATH train to Newark Airport or any other capital project goes forth.
very good idea- not in my lifetime if ever- amtrak will be gone by then, so why waste the money