Within a span of four days last week, two PATH trains from Hoboken bound for 33rd St. derailed in the same area of track, just a quarter mile outside Hoboken.  The first derailment occurred Sunday, March 25; the second occurred Wednesday, March 28.

According to an article in The Star Ledger:

“DePallo said the reduction of speed to 5 mph from upwards of 15 mph in that area would only add “a couple minutes'’ to travel time from Hoboken to the Christopher Street station in Manhattan.”

I wonder about that, since I’ve been getting into the office the same time as usual only by not stopping to wait on line to get breakfast at a deli.  This deli is frequented by NYU students, so it never takes less than five minutes to stop by, give my order, get my order, get on line again, and pay.

“Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia said the incidents point up the importance of the agency’s “aggressive,'’ ongoing initiative to improve the PATH system, an initiative that includes purchasing an entire new fleet of rail cars at a cost in excess of $600 million.

Also today, the Port Authority officially joined forces as a partner with NJ Transit on the second trans-Hudson River rail tunnel that will double capacity from New Jersey to Penn Station, New York.

The Port Authority’s board approved a memorandum of understanding that will give the bi-state agency control of real-estate acquisition and construction of the project in New York, while NJ Transit will handle those tasks in New Jersey.”

This is the first I’ve heard of any plans to spend $600 million on improvements for the PATH system.  Also note that only last week did the Port Authority decide to join forces with NJ Transit to move forward with the planned third tunnel into midtown.  I suspect that a “memorandum of understanding” is rather meaningless.  No mention was made of timing.

One source of information I’ve been monitoring is the blog section at NJ-ARP.  For those of you who visit the transit forum on NJ.com, the name Bob Schuerle will be familiar; he is a longtime, and regular, contributor there and at NJ-ARP.

I was reading this article PATH offering free e-mail service alerts and I thought it was a good improvement to the PATH system. As a former PATH rider, it’s good to think of a notification system that would alert you when there were issues so you can plan accordingly. Excellent.

Then I see a reference to the NJ Transit alert system in the same article. More specifically:

Dan Stessel, an agency spokesman, said the notification program has proved popular for NJ Transit riders. “They want the ability to get information at their fingertips that is usable and can make a difference in the quality of their commutes,” said Stessel.

Isn’t this just typical PR that says absolutely nothing. Here’s Ripper’s interpretation of that:

Statement 1: Alerts are popular for NJ Transit riders.

Statement 2: They [NJ Transit riders] want the ability to get usable information at their fingertips that makes a difference in their commute.

This all sounds good. People want to be alerted and it’s really popular. Awesome. Commute nirvana.

Here’s what is missing. What does popular mean? A lot of people signed up for it in terms of volume? That says NOTHING about the satisfaction of the people or the effectiveness of the alerts. I will tell you this. So far this week, EVERY train I took was not on time to the stations I was going between (NY Penn and Jersey Ave). I got a train alert for a train I wasn’t on. That was real helpful. Outside of that alert, I must have been in some kind of cosmic void because where I was and what NJ Transit was alerting were 2 different things. There was a discussion in the TransitHell.com Forum about the effectiveness of these alerts. Something I’ve been saying forever that would be useful would be if I was alerted of the track at Penn Station on my phone. Now this would be helpful! Unfortunately Mr. Stessel doesn’t listen to Ripper and will only listen to those “spies” on the trains. There’s my free advice. Take it or leave it. Ok, if you are going to leave it, then perhaps you can get people to spell words correctly in the messages that do go out.The second statement above is telling us what NJ Transit riders want (as a whole). Do the alerts provide that? Based on what people were talking about in the forum, I can’t be sure that’s the case. It certainly isn’t for me.

I certainly wish the PATH good luck with their alerts. I really hope they are more useful than the NJ Transit alerts that we get. They now have monitors in the stations on when the next train will arive so it does sound like they have a better infrastructure in place for better alerts. In the meantime, us Garden Staters will have to make due with what we have.

In our world, you can’t define success unless you are measuring something. Period. Anything else is just an assumption (and we all know what happens when you assume something). The statements from NJ Transit tell us nothing about success of the alert system. Perhaps it’s Amtrak’s fault?

What the (Transit)Hell is it about Fridays that makes the commute home just that little bit more of a bitch? Is it that the ‘workers’ don’t have Saturday off so they like to screw with those of us who do?

For a start, the usually-(comparatively)reliable PATH trains are guaranteed to be running two minutes skewed from the timetable. You never know if you can safely wait for the next one and get a seat or whether the next one is even going to turn up.

And then the joy of the RVL on a Friday afternoon. Apparently the dispatcher has a really mean streak and likes to go out of his way to put freight trains ahead of commuter trains on a Friday afternoon. These would be the freight trains that take half an hour to reach 10mph, of course - which doubtless they achieve just after the line branches to the West of Roselle Park.

All of this, of course, is compounded at this time of year by the hoorays who’re heading to the toxic shore.

So is it just my specific commute? Or does anyone else get the transit shaft on a Friday afternoon?

Holy crap….I’ve had the pleasure of being subjected to the stench of the french on teh trains and subways of Paris, even been exposed to those lovely German Women with the foul odor eminating from the pits that have more hair under them then Ripper has on his Red Head, be forced to look at the snaggle teeth of those brits on the Tube, but damn…I’ve never had people stare at me like I just stole their last crust of bread from them…

I’m here in NJ on work the next few weeks and I decided to take the light rail and then Path into the city for S&Gs….I get on and obviously there’s regulars all around, but I’m trying to figure out why from the minute I stepped on I back prime target to stare at….WTF…do us out of towners have labels stamped on our foreheads like hey A Hole I’m lost or have no idea what I’m doing? Reall I don’t think all people in NJ and NY want to rob me…hell I was wondering at some point if maybe all that sweet tea we drink in North Carolina gave off some scent making me the most desireable piece of ass candy for someone….

Ripp, loved to meet you this week or next but damn give me the tips of the trade so I can ride my transport in peace without the stares of a thousand little samuel L Jackson’s in Comming to america staring at me…

What’s with these people who board the PATH train at Newark Penn Station on one side of the train, shove their way through, and then go out the other door! WHAT THE FUCK DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?? I know that they sometimes alternate which doors open first, so you may have a better chance of getting a seat, though its not likely. These people seriously piss me off.

To the bimbettes in the Hoboken Terminal PATH station who just can’t handle it that people will brush past you and say Excuse Me during rush hour: Please, please move to rural Kansas if you can’t take the heat. It’s much less crowded there, and I promise, nobody will bump you.

First incident within 2 weeks: Walking on First St. towards Hudson, near the AM New York guy: Bimbo on spiky heels, absentmindedly SWINGING her left arm (I hate that because you take up twice as much space when you do that), holding up the crowd by being slow and spacing out. I PASS (not bump) her on the left, as I’m already late.

From behind, I hear a hiss, “Jesus Christ, watch it, bitch.”

Second incident happened on the train, but not to me. Again, a girl got on the train, and another Britney wannabe was bopping along on her headphones, standing in the line of passage. Entering girl says “Excuse me” and moves on past, after which the bimbette says, “Scuse you! Scuse you!” (because she didn’t hear the Excuse Me). I could hear the guys next to me saying, “She said it, but she wasn’t listening. Why do some people gotta pull an attitude about everything?”

Well said, gentlemen.

Today: Third bimbo, not on spiky heels this time, but with a large backpack. She was buying her ticket, with her bag STICKING OUT into the turnstile space. Myself as well as the guy behind me say Excuse Me, but she doesn’t hear due to her IPOD being plugged into her ears, bopping along.

So we keep walking, BRUSHING (again not bumping) her bag. She turns around, a look of horror on her face, and when I say sorry, yells, ‘JESUS CHRIST, ASSHOLE!”

So I said back, “So move your bag next time. We’re trying to get to work.” And moved on through the turnstile.

Anyone wanna guess that these ladies act the same way in the office?

from nj.com - Ouch!

Entrances to the Exchange Place PATH station in Jersey City were closed this morning after a commuter got hit by a falling icicle, said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The icicles are falling from 10 Exchange Place, a building across the street from the staion, Hicks said. All entrances next to escalators were closed and riders are being directed to a nearby elevator.

This evening, I arrived at Penn Station at 5:25, only to find that all of the trains were delayed due to the breakdown of an Amtrak train (the second major Amtrak screwup of the day). So instead of taking a train into the Secaucus Boondoggle, I went to the 33rd St. PATH station to go to Hoboken. What is normally a 15-minute trip took 45 minutes because of signal trouble, so I not only missed my usual train but the train after that one, too. To make matters worse, I am a Main Line sufferer, meaning that there are ridiculously long gaps between trains, even during rush hour. So I had to waste another 30 minutes in Hoboken waiting for the next train. To top it all off, that train was six minutes late. This is truly transit hell.