Today’s post is by guest blogger Catharine Cody.
Normally I ignore my dad’s posts about NJ Transit delays, failures and false promises, too. But recently, the PATH service between Hoboken and 33rd street has become so abysmal, that I felt the need to blog about it.
Let’s face it. No one LOVES to commute. It’s just something we have to do every day if we want to get to work. As a proud Hoboken resident, I often tell people how amazing my commute to work is. On a normal day, it’s 30 minutes door-to-door! While on the PATH train, I can usually find a nice, clean seat and relax in the air-conditioned car for 14 minutes. 14 minutes- no more and no less. There is an adequate amount of space for the people who make this commute, and everyone is quite pleasant towards each other.
Over the past few months, however, PATH service has slipped. In fact, the Port Authority reduced service during peak hours by 14%. Meanwhile, ridership at the Hoboken PATH station has increased by 11% since 2012. To sum up, we have more commuters and fewer trains.
After a quick search on PATH’s main website, one can’t find any information about the reduced service. In fact, PATH doesn’t even have a tagline. Before the service cuts, I would have suggested something along the lines of, “The Luxurious Way to Commute” or even “14 Minutes of Bliss Every Morning.” Now I’d recommend their tagline be, “The PATH to an Awful Day.”
And, it really is the PATH to an awful day, because Hoboken-ers don’t want to be squeezed into a jam-packed car. We live in Hoboken for a reason, so we don’t have to deal with the 6 train nightmare every day. So, PATH officials, take heed. Give us our DAMN trains back and we’ll be blissfully serene in the mornings. If you keep this up, we’ll all be angry New Yorkers before long.
I feel your pain, Catharine. BART, or Bay Area Rapid Transit, used to be a very civilized way to get to and from work every day. No more. To give you a sense of how overcrowded the train has become: My stop is the very first on the line, so in theory there should be plenty of seats available. But if you don’t get to the station early during commuting hours, you may be standing during the 45-minute ride. And of course you’ll be joined by every single rider who boards the train after the first stop. Layer that on top of an aging system prone to breakdowns, and the result is a lot of unhappy commuters. I imagine it’s because members of Congress don’t want to touch the infrastructure discussion, because no one wants to be accused of spending taxpayer dollars.