OK, I'm as guilty as anyone: a keyboard warrior who complains about PATH service (especially nights and weekends) and then managed to not do anything about it.

This slide is taken from the Port Authority proposed budget here: Board / Committee Presentations & Transcripts (panynj.gov) which you can find under 2022 December.

Here's the problem: we have to submit comment to the Port Authority to get heard. Right now, they're saying only 1 person complained about weekend service on PATH. 1 person. ONE. They only got 18 total comments. So if you're reading this and agree, submit a public comment. We'll over run them with complaints about the weekend and night service.

There are a bunch of other informative slides (like this one about the passenger volume) being at 66% of the 2019 numbers, which I would attribute to both the loss of workers going into offices, but also the reduction in service.

https://preview.redd.it/lj07cvqc22ia1.png?width=1281&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b29197d8a33f5e9cd45507203f2e8b428379e217

I know I provided a comment about better weekend service among other things on a recent rider survey.

I’m sure they’re going to use this as an excuse to cut weekday service, and not as a reason to expand weekend service. It’s insane. Train was packed at 11pm last night, considerably more than any weekday train I take

Yeah I don't see this as a failure on people who take the path. This is a huge failure in the way port authority collects this data.

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"via Hoboken"

Excuse me while I puke

You can blame the system or you can participate, I guess.

I did the same. A good start! I am trying to figure out how to submit public comment to Port Authority. We're going to have to get loud.

I get it, but as someone who has complained about this for 30 years, I'm just tired of the shit already. I've done the path rider committee stuff even. I bitched about the lack of weekend and late night service. I bitched about the lack of trash cans. I bitched about the detour to Hoboken.

Nothing changed.

I guess they win, because I'm just too assed out to continue to spend this energy. Good luck to the rest of y'all, but unless I'm seeing a reddit link that says "click here, copy/paste this or something similar", man I'm just tired of trying to tilt the windmills.

I'm absolutely going to get this and you better believe I'm going to DM it to you.

I'm actually going to do both.

That's the spirit. Me too!

Where and how do you submit a public comment to the Port Authority?

Trying to get that now

PATH weekend and late night service is pathetic. I get that work has to be done, especially on NWK-WTC, but they are clearly using that as an excuse now to shaft the weekend riders. At the bare minimum, they need to separate the 33rd Street lines during the day on weekends. Those trains are downright dangerous. Also, my understanding is that the majority of the NWK-WTC work is between NWK and JSQ. If this is the case, I don't see why they can't run a JSQ-WTC train on 20 minute headways to complement the 20 minute headways on NWK-WTC (i.e. WTC bound trains would leave JSQ every 10 minutes, with every other one originating at JSQ)

There are also a bunch of small service decreases that took place during COVID and never were brought back. They increased the 33rd line Saturday headways from 10 minutes to 12 minutes, changed overnight from 35 minutes to 40 minute headways, and got rid of the 3 minute rush hour headways on NWK-WTC. Really awful stuff.

The overnight NJ bound Holland Tunnel closure has been all over the news recently. You would think that PA would think to supplement overnight PATH service since they are the ones closing the tunnel. Nope!

Give this guy a NYTimes OpEd. You nailed every aspect of this.

(also, user name checks out - probably a lot of visits to 33rd/MSG 😆)

Yep, always down to grab a postgame drink but I make sure that, no matter what, I am at 33rd before 11 when the garbage 33-HOB-JSQ service begins

Past few weekends has had single tracking between at least EXPL and WTC. Hard to squeeze a Hoboken train in there.

What the... that one Transit comment is definitely mine. I remember filling out this survey on the app and stating that weekend and night service are terrible. Shocked it went anywhere (not in terms of actual action, just that the survey was even real)

The survey they issue regularly is not the same as comment on the budget.

Lol, nope. I did the same thing on the survey.

The public comment process for the budget is a completely different process.

Especially with the Holland Tunnel closed at night!! Like come on now lets put two and two together

Speaking about the lack of trash cans ... A few weeks back I was waiting for a delayed train at journal square, went from the middle of the station area where you board the trains all the way to the front of it searching for one but of course there aren't any. I asked the conductor who happened to be in the other train if he had any idea why there are no trash cans, and he told me it was something about a security risk??? Meanwhile almost every NYC subway station has at least one.

Looks like they are supposed to post proposals on this page. Not sure why there’s a bunch of old stuff posted there right now. https://publiccomments.panynj.gov/

Here’s where they solicited comments on the proposed budget, but the link is now stale: https://publiccomments.panynj.gov/proposed-budget/

OK now this is funny because I was going to comment that *I* submitted that they need more weekend service.

Yeah this is a next year/next quarter issue at this point.

Sadly, a lot of MTA stations have taken out trash cans as well. It turns out that people put trash in them and then someone has to empty them. Novel, I know.

Anyhow, the MTA figured out there's less trash in the stations if you don't have trash cans, because (most) people will just hold on to their trash rather than throw it near/on an overfull trash can. Also, then the MTA doesn't have to empty any trash cans. A real win/win if you're the MTA and a real lose if you're a customer who wants basic services. See also: bathrooms.

This would be like if a restaurant decided not to use utensils because they were sick of cleaning them, and just told everyone to eat with their hands/bring their own. But hey, when you're a government service ...

I'm just waiting for them to turn Fridays into a weekend service... I'd like them to use that money to improve weekends but I guess I'm dreaming.

Trash cans in stations ARE a security risk. In the UK we used to have IRA bombs planted in them in busy stations especially by the exits where there would be dozens of people. Now if there are any they are clear so that you can see the contents. It was a surprise to me when I moved to the US to see trash cans in station locations with heavy foot traffic.

But you gave the answer! Clear trash cans! Novel!

It turns out we can do the same here, but it was never really about security. It was about cost cutting. Always.

Most of our cans were removed after 9/11. Bombs being hidden in trash cans was a real fear here, too. Backpacks were randomly searched. Look what happened at the Boston Marathon. Exploding backpacks. Clear cans are a nice idea though.

Unfortunately, none of this is new. One comment, or a million, the PA knows they've got you over a barrel because the other options to cross the river are even worse. Just pray they never go on strike again.

It's an excuse. I printed out pictures of trash cans at subway stations everywhere from NYC to DC to Atlanta to Israel to Tokyo. "The PATH is the most threatened network in the world". Fuck outta here. Anything to save a buck

The PA and the people who would strike are not the same.

Yes. I should have said PATH train conductors and engineers. I didn't mean to imply that. Sorry if I was confusing.

All good, I misunderstood too :)

(A strike would be such a huge mess and inconvenience, I think people around here would get so pissed, so fast. Important to remember who the real enemy is!)

There was a big strike in the late 70s, I think, right on the heels of a subway strike. It lasted about 2 months. In July - during a garbage strike in NYC. Everyone had to crush into busses in the Port Authority. Heat wave + piles of garbage + busses packed like sardine cans. My direct route to/from the bus was through Hell's Kitchen - which lived up to its name. Ugh.

Also dozens of people complain on their twitter. They’ve had some very interesting excuses on there lately - https://twitter.com/pathtrain/status/1622273149503938561?s=46&t=5Pprj8BgXg06GDJuBJcr3A

Right, I’m shocked sometimes that I can actually catch a regular train that doesn’t go to HBK until 10:48pm on a Friday

Why are you downvoted lol the PATH is the only game in town and they know they can do whatever they want since they don’t have to answer to anyone

I have provided plenty of comment in the quarterly service they send out.

Them ignoring all that in favor of this garbage is why they need to be abolished

> Anyhow, the MTA figured out there's less trash in the stations if you don't have trash cans, because (most) people will just hold on to their trash rather than throw it near/on an overfull trash can. Also, then the MTA doesn't have to empty any trash cans. A real win/win if you're the MTA and a real lose if you're a customer who wants basic services. See also: bathrooms. > >

This is false. They ran a pilot on this assumption (based on Japan) and found people were happy to throw their garbage on the tracks. Many trash cans were restored.

You know that tunnel was closed on weekends for like 2 years in 2017 right? Whats the excuse this time?

I'm interested in reading more about that, but couldn't find anything about the pilot failing. Can you point me in the right direction?

No idea, just what I’ve noticed riding on weekends recently

Def need more pressure on Path regarding service cuts... but I do want to point out that this past Saturday, the Journal Square to 33rd Street was running with 20 minutes headway until around 3:40 am while the Newark to WTC was running with 40 minute headways.... seemed weird to me to have one line running more frequently while the other was a longer wait.

Anyone know why, tried looking it up and got nothing

It's only a security risk because JSQ is the headquarters of PATH

Look, im happy we have a 24 hrs train from Manhattan that connects easily to most of the mta lines and i don't really care about waiting for trains as late night trains are always a mess...but I hate that they just cut services and don't fucking tell people or try to put them back... it reminds me of when they almost cut the overnight and weekend trains in 2015 and then decided against it and this smells of them just trying to slowly cut the service just to save a few bucks, while hamstringing the economy of the urban communities along the lines and in Manhattan

Is that a fact? I thought the 20-minute headways end with the 2:48 train (14th st) for the 33-JSQ line

Yes, but just looked at this Saturday's schedule and it's back to a 40 minute schedule... so idk what the hell was that... was it a test run or was service on the Newark line delayed and they ran those to make up... idk, but I know I was super confused

I am not surprised by that. I'm raining on their parade. Sadly, PATH shows no sign of changing, and even worse, it doesn't have to because despite its many faults and crap night/weekend service, the PA knows they really have no competition.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/mta-garbage-cans/

Subways with a bathroom? Now your just adding jet fuel to a homeless crisis fire and the inevitable person with a mental illness attack on an innocent straphanger.

I have bad news about what happens when you take away the bathrooms. The homeless crisis doesn't go away and neither do people's bodily functions.

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2 min and 5 min, truly awful first world stuff we need to deal with, and which will just result in riders staring down at their phone for an additional 2 min and 5 min respectively.

Correct, it doesn’t go away, it further encourages it.

It's not about the wait time, it's about how crowded those trains get because they are running fewer trains. Peak Saturday JSQ-HOB-33 is suffocating

There’s no way only one comment was made; if so, then I made it.

They’re full of shit

Where did you make your comment? I'm trying to figure out where they allowed people to submit.

They posted something like an “annual survey” via some surveymonkey type website on their Twitter page. This was months ago

This isn't the same thing. This was comments on the budget.