Officials from New Jersey officials and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have backed away from a proposal to eliminate overnight service on its PATH train system.
New Jersey Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Senate President Steve Sweeney announced on Jan. 14 that the Port Authority is tabling "indefinitely" its plans to eliminate overnight PATH service between New Jersey and New York City. The agency introduced the possibility of cutting PATH trains between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in a 99-page special panel report released on Dec. 26 and estimated it would save around $10 million a year.
Sweeney and Prieto said they met with Port Authority Chairman John Degnan and received a commitment from him not to cut the service.
"Port Authority reform was never supposed to be about cutting vital rail services for hard-working residents," said Prieto in a statement. "This was a bad idea from the start and I'm glad to see it set aside."
In a Jan. 13 letter addressed to Sweeney and Prieto, Degnan emphasized that a recommendation by a Special Panel on the Future of the Port Authority about the possibility of PATH service cuts was never presented to the board of commissioners.
"We're the Board to take up this issue in the future, any proposed reduction in PATH service would first require detailed study, consultation with local public officials and of course a series of public hearings to be attended by commissioners," said Degnan in his letter.
