Run More PATH Trains to World Trade Center
Published:
PATH operates trains from Newark, Jersey City, and Hoboken to two Manhattan terminals: 33rd Street and World Trade Center (WTC). The system runs weekday rush hour commuter-focused service, but off-peak headways are poor and weekend service is horrendous. The easiest way to fix this is to run more trains to World Trade Center.
Inadequate Weekend Service
Grove Street station in Jersey City receives 27 trains per hour (tph) during weekday peak times but only 6 tph on weekends. This creates a major problem for residents of Jersey City, Newark, and Harrison. Newark and Harrison experience an even steeper drop, going from 12 tph during weekday peak to just 3 tph on weekends.
Beyond the frequency issues, weekend routing is also problematic. Trains bound for 33rd Street from Journal Square must first travel to Hoboken before heading to Manhattan, adding nearly 10 minutes to the journey. For someone traveling from Jersey City to Herald Square on weekends, it’s almost always faster to take the PATH to WTC and transfer to the 1 or R train.
Typical PATH Weekend routing
These poor headways and long travel times create dangerously crowded platforms, packed trains, wasted time, and ultimately discourage people from relying on PATH for weekend travel.
The Situation Gets Worse
Starting today, June 15th, the situation has deteriorated further:
New PATH Weekend routing
Journal Square-bound trains from 33rd Street now travel to Hoboken, return to Newport, detour to Exchange Place, and finally head to Grove Street. This new routing adds 16 minutes to what is normally a 23-minute ride between Journal Square and 33rd Street, making the route even more impractical. It’s now much faster to take the subway to WTC/Fulton Street and transfer to the PATH to cross the Hudson.
Why is this happening?
PATH is not very transparent about these changes, but they’re likely due to track work on the downtown-bound track between Hoboken, Newport, and Grove Street, which forces single tracking and requires trains to share the uptown track. However, it’s unclear whether this work occurs every weekend, and there doesn’t appear to be similar track work during weekday nights.
Downtown Tubes Are Underserved
Average Ridership (April 2025)
| Station | Weekday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Street | 4,510 | 3,224 | 2,593 |
| 9th Street | 4,711 | 3,134 | 2,510 |
| 14th Street | 6,371 | 4,315 | 3,556 |
| 23rd Street | 7,188 | 2,999 | 2,221 |
| 33rd Street | 23,302 | 13,142 | 10,735 |
| Uptown Total | 46,082 | 26,814 | 21,615 |
| WTC | 47,063 | 22,058 | 17,904 |
| Newark | 18,550 | 7,163 | 6,287 |
| Harrison | 6,714 | 3,607 | 2,358 |
| Newark & Harrison Total | 25,264 | 10,770 | 8,645 |
| Journal Square | 23,678 | 14,030 | 11,344 |
| Grove Street | 17,833 | 11,374 | 8,646 |
| Exchange Place | 12,502 | 6,139 | 4,929 |
| Newport | 13,143 | 5,855 | 4,764 |
| Jersey City Total | 67,156 | 37,398 | 29,683 |
| Hoboken | 18,050 | 10,069 | 7,399 |
| System Total | 203,615 | 107,109 | 85,245 |
During weekday rush hours, the uptown PATH tubes (toward 33rd Street) see 22.5 tph, while the downtown tubes (toward WTC) see 19.5 tph in each direction. On weekdays WTC actually sees slightly more ridership than all Manhattan stations on the 33rd Street line combined. However, on weekends, the 33rd Street line stations see about 20% more ridership than World Trade Center. This disparity likely results from demand destruction on the WTC route due to poor weekend service.
In recent months, the Port Authority began running additional weekend service between Hoboken and 33rd Street, effectively providing 10-minute headways between these stations. Meanwhile, WTC, Exchange Place, Newport, Harrison, and Newark all operate with 20-minute headways, half the frequency of the Hoboken-33rd St line.
This disparity is remarkable: Newark and Harrison see more ridership than Hoboken every single day, weekdays and weekends. Jersey City has nearly 4 times more riders than Hoboken, yet all these stations receive half the service frequency of Hoboken.
The Solution: Run More PATH Trains to WTC
The problems of poor headways, track work disruptions, and inefficient routing all have the same solution: Run more PATH trains to the World Trade Center.
While I appreciate the Port Authority for providing 10-minute weekend service to Hoboken (though they should make it permanent rather than calling it “temporary additional service”), they must also increase the service in the downtown tunnels to WTC.
WTC is superior to both 33rd Street and Hoboken as a terminal, since it can accommodate up to five trains simultaneously and connects to most New York City subway lines, allowing riders to travel to different locations easily.
My Recommended Solution: Run more frequent service from Newark to WTC, with trains arriving at least every 10 minutes—the same frequency Hoboken receives despite serving far fewer passengers.
The current 33rd Street to Journal Square weekend routing provides no benefit to Jersey City residents. For comparison, the A train traverses the entire length of Manhattan in nearly the same time it takes PATH to travel from 33rd Street to Journal Square with this routing. The Port Authority should eliminate the Journal Square-33rd Street weekend service entirely, work with Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to provide free transfer from Newport to Exchange Place and Hoboken, and redirect that capacity to WTC service.
If track work between Harrison and Journal Square truly prevents 10-minute service on the Newark-WTC line, the Port Authority should run additional Journal Square-WTC service to provide direct 10-minute service to WTC from Jersey City stations.
The bottom line: Run more trains to the World Trade Center!