The first of 72 new blue and silver PATH rail cars arrived in Port Newark Sunday as more workers return to work.
After being transported by ship from Japan, the first two cars were unloaded at the facility in New York. The fleet of PA-5 cars will be increased by 20%.
The cars will be loaded onto trucks and taken to the Harrison rail yard, where they will be ready for revenue service.
A project to lengthen platforms in five New Jersey stations is expected to be finished by the end of the year. The larger $1 billion PATH improvement plan was announced on June 20, 2019.
The stations on the line can only hold 8 cars.
The first phase of 50 cars was purchased for $150 million and the second phase for 22 cars was purchased for $22 million. The delivery was supposed to start in the spring of 2021.
According to a survey, more people are returning to work in Manhattan as more cars arrive.
Almost half of Manhattan office workers are in the office on an average weekday, up from 42% in April. 9% of employees work from the office five days a week, according to the report.
According to the survey, the percentage of office employees that are fully remote dropped from 22% in April to 16% in September. According to the survey, return to office rates are expected to increase gradually to end of 2022, with more than half of workers in the office on average weekday.
After the Labor Day holiday, some Wall Street financial firms and banks required employees to work on hybrid schedules between home and work.
Commuter traffic has hit pre-pandemic levels at the Hudson River crossing and morning delays have averaged between 46 to 60 minutes, which may prompt drivers to consider a different mode.
The Port Authority has invested $1 billion in the system to improve the comfort, convenience, and reliability of the system for passengers.
The new fleet will be delivered over the course of 18 months. An ongoing program to rebuild 350 of PATH’s 10- to-11-year-old fleet of PA-5 railcars is being done to improve reliability.
For a safer, more efficient travel experience, we are committed to modernizing our assets and facilities. The director said that it was job one.
The start of delivery of these new cars is a major milestone in our strategy.
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You can reach Larry Higgs at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.