If you're packing a concealed handgun loaded with hollow point "cop killer" bullets, it's probably not the best time to do something that's going to attract the attention of the local constabulary. Ruben Sanabri, 36, learned that lesson the hard way this morning, when police say he jumped the turnstile at the PATH station at 14th Street with a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun tucked in his waistband.
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Results tagged “path”
Don't Jump Subway Turnstile Carrying Your Gun Loaded With Hollow Point Bullets
PATH Ridership Hit Record Highs Last Year
As if the hellish sight of thousands of commuters trying to get out of the World Trade Center PATH station weren't convincing enough, the Port Authority has gone and confirmed earlier reports that PATH ridership is—despite that fare hike—way up. How up? 3.6 percent from to an all-time high of 76.6 million riders a year.
Six Port Authority Cops Foil 15-Year-Old's iPhone Robbing Spree On PATH Trains
A 15-year-old Jersey City boy was arrested last night in Lower Manhattan for stealing an iPhone on the PATH train in a PAPD operation that involved six plainclothes officers. PAPD spokesman Al Della Fave tells us that the boy was observed riding back and forth between Exchange Place and the World Trade Center stations for just over an hour looking for targets, and just after 8:10 p.m., he allegedly grabbed a rider's iPhone before being detained at Exchange Place. iPhone thieves: those six people on the train probably are watching you!
Friday Morning Hell: When WTC PATH Escalators Don't Work
[Update Below] You know what was probably missing from your Friday morning commute? Getting close with some strangers and trying to hike up the escalators at the World Trade Center PATH station. Our Dan Dickinson Tweeted, "Complete clusterfuck at the WTC PATH station this morning. Amazed no one got hurt (yet)" with the above photograph.
Baby Born On PATH Train Already Has Nickname: Fast
The baby whose emergence from the womb aboard a PATH train yesterday made the train miraculously run express already has a nickname: "Jhatpat," the Hindi word for "Fast." The boy's blissed-out parents, Rabita Sarkar and her husband Aditya Saurabh, have not settled on a formal name yet, but Sarker tells the Daily News, "He decided to come and that was it. Nothing could stop him. Nothing could keep him inside for longer." She says they decided to take the PATH to their Manhattan doctor because they were worried about getting stuck in rush hour traffic in the Lincoln tunnel. (A distinct possibility!) They also thought this was just a practice run!
Port Authority Toll Hikes Mean Many More PATH Riders
If the point of the Port Authority's September toll hikes was to push more people to take mass transit, they've worked like a charm. Between September 19th and November 22nd, PATH ridership between Manhattan and New Jersey saw an uptick of about 560,000 riders (or 3.7 percent). Meanwhile 890,000 fewer cars and trucks used the Port Authority's bridges and tunnels in that period. Still, there is good news all around: The Port Authority is expecting to take in 20 percent more revenue than it did last year.
Staring At Tattooed Woman On PATH Leads NJ Man On Constitutional Fight
A 64-year-old Bulgarian immigrant and Hoboken, NJ resident is fighting the local bureaucracy over what he calls an "unconstitutional and irrelevant ticket" for disorderly conduct on a PATH train. And it stems from looking at a heavily tattooed woman.
PA Toll Hike Is Great For Mass Transit (If Not Drivers)
So how are the new Port Authority tolls working out? In short: Great for mass transit, bad for parking lots. The Post today does some anecdotal reporting and finds that the hike, which went into effect earlier this month, has been an immediate bummer for local businesses. "A lot of people are taking the train now," an attendant at a garage at Seventh Avenue and West 31st Street told the tabloid. "Before, we made about $2,500 a day. Now we make about $1,800."
Bloomberg: Pay Port Authority Toll Hikes Or Else Bridges Will Fall Down
Mayor Bloomberg spoke out in favor of the Port Authority's toll hikes for its bridges and tunnels on his radio program yesterday (you know, when he wasn't talking about unemployed people rioting). And why is Bloomberg for the hikes, which are $1.50 for the crossings and 25 cents for PATH service? INFRASTRUCTURE, people!
UPDATE: Metro-North, NJ Transit, LIRR Struggle After Irene
The city's subways are up and running, as are the buses, but the commuter rails that feed into the region are not faring so well. Five Long Island Rail Road lines—Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Montauk, Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson—are suspended while Metro-North and NJ Transit are totally suspended.
Chris Christie: Port Authority Fare Hike Isn't A Tax, It's A "User Fee"
Governors Christie and Cuomo finally ended their "outrage" of the Port Authority's massive proposed toll hikes by pitching much smaller increases—an extra $1.50 for Hudson River crossings and $0.25 a year for the next four years for a PATH ride—and yesterday the increases passed. Hooray for carefully choreographed political theater! But Christie's critics are calling the move a "tax increase," something the governor has avoided like non-propeller based transportation. "It's a user fee," Christie tells the Star-Ledger, "It's not a tax. I know what a tax is and what it looks like."
Port Authority Head: Huge Toll Hikes Are "Absolutely Necessary"
Friday's vote on the proposed $4 and $2 Port Authority toll hikes and $1 PATH hike is shaping up to be a doozy. The PA is holding meetings defending its position to the public right now (with an online hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. and more set for this evening—full list of times and locations here), as governors Cuomo and Christie are posturing for a hike-wary public. The groaning over the hikes has gotten loud enough that Port Authority executive director Chris Ward had to put out a statement yesterday defending his agency's plans.
Cuomo & Christie Feigning Outrage About Port Authority's 50% Toll Hike?
Commuters weren't happy about the Port Authority's obscene plan to raise tolls 50%, but now Governors Cuomo and Christie—who sit on the PA's board—are crying foul, saying they weren't told of the move despite reports that they had "confidentially signaled their grudging support." A source tells the Post that Cuomo was "shocked and less than pleased" about the proposal, which would hike E-ZPass holders' tolls up to $12 from $8 and cash tolls to $15 from $8. PATH commuters would pay an extra $1 a trip. But how much of this outrage is political theater?
Jersey Man Says Screw It And Walks Home Through PATH Tunnel
Most of us at one time or another have gazed longingly down a dark subway tunnel during an interminable wait and thought, "I'd probably get there faster if I just walked it." In the other trespassing-transit-tunnels scare, a Bayonne, New Jersey man decided to do just that yesterday, and strolled from the World Trade Center PATH station to Jersey City. The Post reports that Reymundo Rodriguez, 20, went the entire two miles without getting killed or noticed, until a Port Authority contractor spotted him exiting around 3 a.m. and called the cops. Asked by the contractor what he was doing, Rodriguez replied, "The train never came... so I decided to walk." But when the cops caught up with him, they say he inexplicably told them, "I just put a bomb down on the tracks."
PATH Passengers Thought Crash Was A Bomb
PATH train service to and from Hoboken is back to normal after yesterday's incident where a train crashed into bumpers at the end of the track at the station. Over 30 people were injured in the 8:32 a.m. crash, and more than a few passengers were frightened that the crash was actually more serious. One told WABC 7, "All of a sudden, there was this huge sound. And I thought it felt like a bomb or something like that," while another told the Star-Ledger, "They were all screaming. Everybody thought we had been attacked."
PATH Train Crashes Into Platform At Hoboken Station
Dozens of people were injured when a PATH train crashed into the platform at the Hoboken station. The crash occurred around 9 a.m. and WABC 7 reports, "At least 70 people were on the train at the time that it struck what was believed to be a barrier or stop rail at the platform throwing the people inside."
WTC PATH Service Will Be Suspended During Obama Visit
President Obama is going to be visiting New York City for three hours today, which means there will be heightened security at Ground Zero. This also means yet another day of difficulty for anyone using the PATH by the World Trade Center site. For instance, the PATH's Twitter followers got this message, "Later today midday serv to/from #WTC will be suspended for approx 1 hr due to #Obama visit. Exact time unknown. Updates provided when avail."
PATH Station Urns Turn Out To Be A Homeless Man's Family
The mystery of the abandoned ash-filled urns has been solved. The two urns, which Port Authority police found abandoned last month at the Newport PATH station, apparently contained the cremains of an unidentified homeless man's grandmother and aunt, the Jersey Journal is reporting.
Um, Did You Forget Your Ash-Filled Urns In Jersey City?
People are losing odd things in unexpected places all the time. $500,000 violins in taxis, diamonds at Saturday Night Live's studio—but two ash-filled urns at a PATH station? That's a new one to us. And yet that is just what police found when they inspected a suspicious package yesterday at the Newport PATH station.
PATH Conductor Fired For Candy-Fueled Assault
In October, PATH conductor Michael Wilson took the no-food-on-the-train rule into his own hands, taking down two teens who were trying to sell candy on his train. He threw the box of candy out of the window and put one kid into a headlock, which landed him an assault charge. Now, the Post reports that he was fired in November after disciplinary hearing.
Soaring WTC Transit Hub's Price Tag Keeps Soaring
Barely more than a year ago we wrote about more delays hitting the World Trade Center Transit Hub, now comes word that the station—which at least appears to still be on track for a 2014 opening—is going to cost a smidgen more than originally expected. The Port Authority yesterday acknowledged that the price of the winged station (whose wings will no longer retract) is actually going to cost about $180 million more than the last estimate estimated. The total cost now? $3.44 billion.
PATH Twitter Tries To Keep Riders Courteous, Part 2
The PATH has been rolling out posters for its new Courtesy campaign via Twitter—and the transit agency is also using Twitter to gently scold passengers! Witness an exchange from this morning, when someone bragged, "Lmao at all these white people who keep changing there seat on the path train cause they can here my music from my beat headphones..." But PATHTweet caught wind of it!
PATH Uses Cute Animals So Customers Act Nicer
Over the past few weeks, the PATH system has been unveiling some of its new courtesy posters over Twitter. And when they unleashed this poster of kittens on the public, reactions have ranged from "SRSLY, please tell me these new posters aren't real" (via) and "Totally in favor of this new PATH courtesy sign" (via). What do you think?
Mass Transit Systems Claim To Be "Near Normal"
After two days of blizzard-induced commuting problems across the region, the mass transit agencies say that their service is near normal. (Whatever normal is!) The MTA says that bus and subway "service has been restored to near normal levels on most lines. There will continue to be service outages on a number of lines including the B, Q and Franklin Ave Shuttle," while the Long Island Rail Road is expected to be "near normal rush hour, with a few cancellations on the Babylon Branch, Port Washington Branch, Port Jefferson Branch, West Hempstead Branch and between Hicksville and Jamaica. Customers should anticipate delays of 10 to 15 minutes and build in extra travel time." Let's hear from the customers:
Snowball In Hell: Tales Of Today's Mass Transit Commute
Today's commute has been terrible, as the various mass transit systems dig their way out from under the snow. A reader sent us pictures of the seen at the PATH's Grove Street station (above) and here's a sampling of what some other riders have been saying:
Even MTA Urges Mass Transit Users To Stay At Home
The fast-moving blizzard that dumped chaotic amounts of snow onto the NYC region has also shut down or delayed mass transit. The Long Island Rail Road was shut down (guess these huge machines weren't enough against Mother Nature), Metro-North was pretty much completely suspended, and earlier this morning, NYC Transit Tweeted, "Folks, service is running but with delays, some segment suspensions. If you can, please stay home. We're working to clear snow"—there's snow on subway tracks, causing some lines not to run or suspensions on other ones, and buses are stuck! And the MTA's website has been "sluggish."
Port Authority To "Terror-Proof" PATH Tunnels
As NYC is beefing up security on the subway's "ring of steel" in September, the Port Authority is looking to protect the PATH tunnels. According to the Post, contractors are "toiling in the cloak of darkness" for the "hush-hush project" to install flood-prevention gates and bomb-proof metal plates, and they're being pressured to get it done before the WTC memorial opens next year.
Is The PATH A Suitable Substitute For The Subway?
With the cost of a monthly MetroCard soon becoming an approximate gajillion dollars, the New York Times sheds some light on alternative forms of transportation. They're calling the PATH train the "last truly underground bargain of New York," with a single ride costing just $1.75 and a 30-day past costing $54. And the conductors actually get mad at those kids selling candy! One West Village resident said, “I like to think of it as a little neighborhood secret," and says he has abandoned the 1 train altogether. Now if everybody just moved to the west side of Manhattan between Christopher Street and 33rd Street, we'd all enjoy that savings!
PATH Power or Signal Issues Cause Commuter Problems
Yesterday evening beginning at 6:25 p.m., the PATH suspended service between Journal Square and 33rd Street, Hoboken and World Trade Center, and Hoboken and 33rd Street, at first blaming power issues and then said signal problems were the cause. And, then, at 9:30 p.m., the PATH Alert system indicated, "Due to technical difficulties the path alert system will be out of service until further notice"!! But there was an update just now: "Due to necessary track rehabilitation Path Train service on the Journal Square to 33rd Street via Hoboken line is operating on a 30-minute schedule. Newark to World Trade Center line is operating on a normal weekend schedule."
Heads Up: Evacuation Drill At WTC Site Tonight
Yesterday, the Office of Emergency Management sent out an alert: "The Port Authority of NY/NJ will be conducting an evacuation drill at the World Trade Center excavation site on Wednesday June 30th at approximately 9:15 PM. You may hear a loud tone and verbal alert in the vicinity of the PATH Station and Mezzanine area at the time of the drill." Last year, the OEM, NYPD, FDNY, Port Authority, and other agencies had an emergency rescue drill at the WTC PATH station, complete with "injured passengers."
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