Long-Awaited World Trade Center Transportation Hub Set To Open In March
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The $3.9 billion transportation hub at New York's World Trade Center is set to open in the first week of March.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the long-delayed opening date for the train station on Tuesday. It features a distinctive bird-in-flight design and a marble concourse.
Port Authority officials said the transit hub also will provide 100,000 weekday PATH train riders with a more efficient commute.
The facility is supposed to create a seamless connection between PATH trains to New Jersey, 11 New York City subway lines and ferry service.
"It's not just going outside, it's really a more direct connection," Chris Jones, with the Regional Plan Association, told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
The Santiago Calatrava-designed project was budgeted at $2 billion when plans were announced in 2004. It has been plagued by more than a decade of delays and cost overruns.
An observatory on the upper levels of One World Trade Center opened to the public in May 2015. The observatory takes up levels 100, 101, and 102 of the building, the nation's tallest, at 1,776 feet. The main public viewing space is on the 100th floor, with restaurants on the 101st floor, and an event space on the 102nd floor.
An intersection leading to the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and the new transportation hub was also reopened to the public in June of last year, after being closed for nearly 50 years.
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