Realizing that the Exchange Place PATH station will not be in service for possibly two years, private and public transportation agencies continue to meet in an effort to resolve the difficulties now facing commuters.
The Waterfront Business Community Council, which represents the securities firms located along the Jersey City waterfront, held a special meeting with transportation officials on Wednesday to discuss the expansion of existing routes and the creation of new ones. The plans maximize the use of ferry services, bus routes and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system.
Many Jersey City residents who normally have used the PATH station to commute to the waterfront have been taking the light rail, which has seen a 68 percent increase in ridership, according to Suzanne Mack, the executive director of the Hudson County Transportation Management Association. To cope with the increase, the service has added two more trains.
The Exchange Place PATH station had averaged 15,000 light rail trips per day, Mack said.
"The only thing running into Exchange Place right now from the north to the south is the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail," Mack said.
Commuters who continue to take the PATH train service can only go as far as Grove Street, creating an extra walk to work. Police have had to close Columbus Drive during peak hours to allow the high influx of commuters to walk to Exchange Place without creating pedestrian congestion.
In an effort to provide commuters with a walk-free alternative, the HTMA has worked out a deal with the Lafayette-Greenville Company, a Jersey-City based bus service, to provide a shuttle from Grove Street to Exchange Place for at a charge of 50 cents per trip.
Beginning Oct. 8, two to four buses will run in a loop from Exchange Place to Grove Street, said John Filia, president of the Lafayette-Greenville Company. According to Filia, the bus company will accept monthly passes used by many PATH station commuters.
Aside from people commuting within Jersey City, transportation agencies have re-directed traffic going to and from New York City through the use of ferry services. Since the port at the World Trade Center is closed indefinitely, the only place to dock in the financial district is in Pier 11 on Wall Street.
New York Waterway, a ferry service that commutes from Weehawken, Hoboken and Jersey City to Manhattan, has seen a 50 percent increase in ridership, reaching a high of 52,000 passengers in one day, according to Lisa Herman, a spokesperson for the company. "We’ve chartered five additional ferries and we have a couple more on the way," Herman said.
New York Waterway docks in four different places in Jersey City, including Port Liberte, Liberty Harbor, Colgate, and Harborside. Due to the increase, Herman said, the company is encouraging commuters to use mass transit to get to the ferry services.
Another ferry service that runs from Liberty State Park to Pier 16 out of the Liberty Landing Marina, the Water Taxi, has also increased its service to accommodate the spike in passengers. According to Steve Park, a partner of the marina, the ridership has jumped from 1,000 to several thousand in the past two weeks.
To accommodate the growing number of people using mass transit to get to Liberty State Park, New Jersey Transit has added buses to its routes and The Department of Transportation has paved 10 acres of grass in the park to serve as a bus stop.
The Friends of Liberty State Park and the Liberty State Park Conservancy issued a written statement last week that said they understand the need to use the 10 acres for commuters in this time of emergency. They added, though, that they strongly believe that "the only right thing to do with the financial windfall gained by operating additional commuter services at Liberty State Park during this crisis is for the marina owners and the Development Corporation to donate all proceeds – beyond operational costs – to assist the families of the victims of this tragedy."
The statement also presumed that the situation is temporary. According to Park, however, plans to expand the ferry service had been in the works and the recent tragedy has merely quickened the pace of executing those plans. Commenting on the request of the park’s advocacy groups, Park said the "expansion is still under construction and it is not clear exactly yet how it should work." He added that the request was "a reasonable goal."
For people commuting through the tunnel, the Holland Tunnel has remained closed indefinitely. Port Authority officials said that they plan to use the tunnel with "restrictions" soon and see if it is feasible to open it up.