Hoboken PATH station reopens after weeks of renovations. Here's a look at the changes.
The Hoboken PATH train station reopened Tuesday morning for the first time in nearly a month. The station has been closed for weeks of renovations, including extensive track work.
After 25 days of inconvenience and detours, commuters are returning to a newly renovated station that should be more reliable and feature an elevated ambiance.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the nearly month-long closure was needed for critical repairs and major station work to revamp the 116-year-old system that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
During the first week of the station's closure, crews jackhammered and blasted away old infrastructure, making way for the new, which includes wider staircases, refurbished platforms and thousands of feet of new track.
Workers also installed a modern, custom-made switch, allowing trains to move between tracks seamlessly while reducing delays.
The improvements are part of a $430 million investment program, known as PATH Forward, to improve the speed, reliability and overall passenger experience on the transit system.
"Very happy to have it back"
For the 30,000 commuters who travel in and out of the station everyday, the upgrades are a welcome sight.
"To have it back is so convenient, so much better. We were traveling to Journal Square to get here, which is a little bit inconvenient, because it's cold, it's windy, it's a little bit longer of a walk. So this is way, way better," commuter Katana Burrows said. "It looks better, it's cleaner, the air is better, it's brighter. So yes, very happy to have it back."
"We noticed it was much brighter, cleaner," commuter Debbie Olchick said.
"The floor looks good. I've only been down here a few minutes, so I haven't really been able to look around, but the staircases are metal now instead of concrete, so it all looks good," commuter Tim Render said.
"Everything's beautiful. Everything. I love it," commuter Milton Nesbitt said. "The place was rotten. I used to work construction in Hoboken and I would come through this all the time, and it was rotten down here. And now it's fantastic."
PATH officials say there is still some additional platform and track work to be done in the weeks ahead, but it will not disrupt service.
