“I want the Port Authority to say that this option is off the table,” said a very angry Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer at a rally recently of local, state and federal officials near the Grove Street PATH station. The officials met to oppose several proposals by the Port Authority, including eliminating overnight PATH service during weekdays and weekends and possible privatization of the rail line.
“Doing away with PATH service at night,” she said, “would be an economic disaster.”
The group of officials that came together to object to the proposals included U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D – NJ), Rep. Albio Sires (D – 13th Dist.), State Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco, the mayors of Jersey City, Hoboken, West New York, Weehawken, Guttenberg, Bayonne, Kearny, Harrison, Newark and other towns.
While the PA proposals are only possible options for cutting the authority’s $7 billion budget, local officials like Zimmer said even the suggestion that service might be interrupted or reduced would have a huge impact. She said it could chase away developers or individuals who might otherwise see Hudson County as a viable place to do business or reside.
The Port Authority issued its 300-page report on ways to revamp its operations on the Saturday after Christmas. The officials who met on Jan. 5 said it has become standard PA practice to release information at off-times, and said they were never made aware of the report and its recommendations prior to its release.
That same Saturday that it was released, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov. Christopher Christie of New Jersey vetoed legislation to reform the PA that had been approved overwhelmingly by both state legislatures. An override of those vetoes is considered politically unlikely.
Among the dozens of recommendations that covered a variety of areas, the report claimed the Port Authority could save up to $10 million annually by doing away with PATH service between 1 and 5 a.m. on weekdays, and similar cuts of service on weekends.
The newly-appointed chairman of the PA, John J. Degnan, has defended the report. He said the service cuts would affect about 2,000 riders nightly, and they could always take bus service to and from New York.
PATH is crucial for development
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop admitted the PATH, like most transit systems, loses money. But he said it generates investment in the communities it services and creates a stable, dependable transportation network that enables development.
“People are attracted to the community because of the service,” he said.
While Degnan said riders can use bus service to make up for the cut, bus service does not go to all the places PATH service does. Many people move to areas near PATH stations assuming the service would be available. Sacco noted that one of many environmental initiatives in the state is to get people to ride trains, which are more environmentally friendly than buses.
“Train travel is essential to the economic life of New Jersey,” Sen. Menendez said. “This change will affect 390,000 PATH weekly riders (annually) and hundreds of thousands more on weekends. We live in a 24 hour, seven day a week global economy. It does not stop at 1 a.m. To deny people transportation is to deny them a way to get to and from jobs.”
Rep. Sires mockingly called the PA recommendations “A Christmas Gift,” and said the PA should get its priorities straight.
“The Port Authority should not be penny-pinching on the backs of people who work late and need the trains to get to jobs,” he said, noting that waste and other spending issues inside the PA should be looked at. “We need an audit and more transparency. New Jersey is always getting the short end of the stick.”
Sires vowed to stop the PA from implementing the cuts.
Menendez said critics of the PA had asked for an independent audit. But the PA did its own audit instead, which revealed serious problems within the agency that the report was partially designed to solve.
Cutting service is a bad idea
State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D – 32nd Dist.) said he has been pushing for reform of the PA, especially after the increases in tolls on bridges and tunnels.
“When we talked about reforming the Port Authority, we never said they should make cuts in services,” he said. “These proposals are unacceptable.”
Sacco, who is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, called the cuts in services “despicable.”
“You can’t hurt people just to save money,” he said, noting that this is an issue that has united Hudson County’s political factions.
State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D – 31st Dist.) said while the proposals may look good on paper their impact will be devastating.
“Not everything that looks good on paper is what people need,” she said. “People need the PATH to get to work. The Port Authority should not be allowed to do this.”
Fulop said the PA presumes that people riding the PATH are involved in recreation, when many people work in the hospitality, food, and other industries and often need to get to work early or come home late.
Fulop and Menendez said that with a nearly $7 billion budget, the PA should be able to find other areas to save $10 million.
Menendez said the PA’s mandate was established by federal legislation and that it may be time for Congress to tweak that legislation to make the PA live up to its purpose of helping spur economic growth for the region.
Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said development in Hudson County has followed the PATH not just in Hoboken and Jersey City, but most recently in Harrison.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said many of the 40,000 students that go to college in Newark use the PATH system, and Newark depends upon a 24-hour, seven-day transportation service to connect it to New York.
One more bad option
Analilia Mejia, director of the NJ Working Families Alliance, said that despite PA claims that a small number of people depend on the overnight service, the proposal to cut service runs counter to the interests of the state. She said this is just part of a pattern of behavior by Christie that includes underfunding schools and withholding property tax rebates to working families.
“This governor is going to leave this state in worse shape than he found it,” she said, estimating that the gross income of people riding the train at night, even configured at minimum wage, amounts to about $400 million annually.
“When we talked about reforming the Port Authority, we never said they should make cuts in services. These proposals are unacceptable.” – Vincent Prieto
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“This is very troubling to the people of New Jersey and working families who rely on the early morning PATH train to get to and from work each and every day,” said Ray Greaves, chair of the Amalgamated Transit Union’s New Jersey State Council and a former Bayonne city councilman. “We need a transit system that meets the demands of the 21st century riders and Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo’s and Christie’s proposed bill puts our area on the wrong path.”
Bad news for Bayonne
Bayonne Mayor James Davis said the reduction of service would negatively affect development in Bayonne.
While PATH service does not go into Bayonne, many Bayonne residents use the Hudson Bergen Light Rail system to access the PATH, and many of the future development plans along the light rail line rely on this connection, Davis said.
“We are the last part of the Gold Coast,” he said. “If they cut PATH services, it would have a huge impact on our ability to attract development.”
He also said ridership is only part of the loss to the local economy, since many local merchants rely on commuters to patronize their businesses on their way to and from work.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.