Lauren Rivera 
Riders aren’t imagining it: the PATH system is experiencing real problems. For Hoboken and Jersey City travelers, what should be a routine commute has turned into a daily roll of the dice, as multiple reports of system malfunctions at the Hoboken, Grove Street, and Journal Square stations have marked the past few months, leading riders to question not if something will go wrong, but what and when. Read on for a detailed look into what’s been happening at the PATH, and the local history that puts it all into perspective.
The History of the PATH
Construction for what is now known as the PATH began in 1873. At the time, it was privately owned by the Hudson + Manhattan Railroad, later known as the H+M Hudson Tubes. Some fun Mile Square lore: the first train to ever take off from H+M was a test train, and it departed from the now Hoboken Station to Morton Street in NYC in 1907. The railroad officially opened to the public on February 26th, 1908, marking the establishment of the first-ever underground train service beneath the Hudson River.
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The years between 1909 and 1911 saw the completion of lines from Lower Manhattan to Jersey City, from Manhattan to 33rd Street, and from Jersey City to Newark. Over the next few years, H+M would construct more platforms across the Hudson County area and reach its highest passenger count of 113,141,729 people in 1927.
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Like with any new technology, today’s innovation is tomorrow’s history. Once a pioneer in early 20th-century public transit, H+M began to lose ground to the rise of motor vehicles in the 1930s. Its decline was sealed by the construction of the Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, and George Washington Bridge, which diverted riders and, by the 1950s, drove the company into bankruptcy.
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The Port Authority was founded on April 30th, 1921. The agency sought to acquire the land where the Hudson Terminal stood at the time to build the World Trade Center. In exchange for land rights, the Port Authority purchased H+M’s train stations in 1962, with plans to demolish the terminal and take over + maintain long-term operations of the transit system. The Port Authority, expanding its local transit portfolio and forming what is now known as the PATH, officially became the Port Authority of New York + New Jersey (PANYNJ).
PATH Players: What Entities are Involved?
Today, the PATH, a bi-state regional transit system, stands for the Port Authority Trans-Hudson, spanning approximately 13.8 miles to 13 stations across Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, Hoboken, and Lower + Midtown Manhattan.
Despite a common misconception amongst New Jerseyans, the PATH is not under the authority of NJ Transit, a state-owned public transportation agency that answers to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. The PATH is solely owned and operated by the PANYNJ, an independent bi-state agency. The Port Authority is governed by a board of commissioners appointed by the governors of New York + New Jersey. The board consists of 12 commissioners, with six from the Empire State and the other six from the Garden State.
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Aside from PATH, PANYNJ manages an entire network of regional transportation facilities, from airports to bus terminals. This includes John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Stewart International Airport (SWF), and Teterboro Airport (TEB), as well as multiple cruise terminals within NY and NJ, the ExpressRail network, and numerous maritime ports that fall under the Port of New York + New Jersey. Port Authority also oversees operations at the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Bayonne Bridge, Goethals Bridge, and Outerbridge Crossing.
What is Happening at the PATH?
On January 30th, 2025, PATH’s Hoboken station closed for approximately a month to allow the Port Authority to carry out critical safety repairs and improvements across several elements of the 117-year-old system. As part of its $430 million PATH Forward program, which aims to rehabilitate the Hoboken, Grove Street, Newport, and Exchange Place stations over a two-year period, the agency upgraded outdated switches, repaired tracks in both tunnels leading into the station, improved platform staircases, and resurfaced public walkways.
The Hoboken PATH station reopened on February 25th, 2025, under the premise that all safety repairs, which were fast-tracked to expedite the station upgrades in a shorter timeframe, had been completed. Yet, this spring and summer have seen a cluster of systematic issues across multiple PATH stations, including switch malfunctions, train breakdowns, and ongoing signal and track issues, a few of which were the very systems supposedly replaced during the month-long Hoboken Station shutdown.
May 2025
May 8th marked one of the most significant technical breakdowns. On this day, an electrical fire broke out on a third-rail feeder cable near the Grove Street station during peak commuter hours. The fire was suppressed around 7:44AM, and train services resumed just minutes after.
That was until the cable reignited ten minutes later, prompting Port Authority police to evacuate passengers and crew from the platform under a dense cloud of smoke, according to a report released by the National Transportation Safety Board. Five PATH employees were treated that morning for smoke-related injuries. An investigation of the incident is still ongoing.
On the same day, just an hour after the electrical fire broke out, the PATH control center received reports from train crews of an abnormal track condition at the Grove Street station, resulting in a system-wide service suspension around 8AM. At 9AM, services resumed with residual delays.
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On May 16th, just eight days after the prior incident, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers + Trainmen, the labor union representing NJ Transit locomotive engineers, went on strike. This resulted in a complete shutdown of all NJT rail services for two days. The Port Authority implemented a contingency plan that involved adding additional capacity as needed, staffing stations with customer ambassadors to help with overcrowding, and operating free shuttle buses for both PATH and NJT riders.
PATH riders voiced concerns about overcrowding during this time, especially in stations where it’s already at full capacity. Jean Amorim, a regular PATH commuter traveling six days a week, told News 12, “Right now, we don’t have enough trains. And if you have more riders, we need like double trains.”
June 2025
The month of June saw two separate power outages at multiple PATH stations. On June 3rd, around 6:10PM, train services were abruptly halted due to a power failure in the tunnel between the Hoboken and Christopher Street stations, impacting the evening rush hour. As a result, a train became stranded in the tunnel beneath the West Village in NYC. Multiple passengers were escorted above ground by Port Authority crews and EMS, with some requiring medical attention.
Then, on June 15th at 8PM, another power outage occurred in the third-rail electrical system at the Hoboken station. Service was suspended for around three and a half hours. That Sunday, the City of Hoboken advised travelers to expect service disruptions during the Monday morning commute.
June 15th also marked the rollout of the next phase of the PATH Forward project: a sudden service adjustment to the Journal Square to Hoboken line, announced with less than a week’s notice before taking effect.
Until the end of January 2026, the PATH commuter rail will operate on a weekend-only basis to “accommodate critical rail replacement and track stabilization work in the vicinity of multiple PATH stations,” PANYNJ said in a statement. The trains will run every 20 minutes.
“For years, fares have increased while service has steadily declined…While I understand the need for repairs, this kind of reduction is short-sighted and self-defeating,” Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla shared via Instagram, as a response to the Port Authority’s announcement. “Reliable, accessible public transportation is the backbone of regional economic growth and opportunity. We can’t afford to let it fall further behind.”
July 2025
Five months after the Hoboken station reopened, multiple equipment failures occurred on July 12th and 13th, which this petition, created by local resident Elijah Otero, calling for another full closure of the station to address its issues, describes as a “catastrophic meltdown.”
During the morning of July 12th, a malfunction occurred on a track switch at Hoboken station, disabling a train that had proceeded over it. This very track switch was one of the components replaced during the 25-day closure. The malfunction shut down all service in and out of Hoboken for a majority of the day.
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“According to our initial investigation, the disruptions were caused by malfunctions of two of the three switches that guide trains through the interlocking in and out of Hoboken station. This interlocking was a key component of the PATH Forward work during the February station closure. Our riders can rest assured that we will identify and address the root cause of these malfunctions, whether it be in their manufacturing, installation, or with our operations. While some issues are inevitable when renovating a 117-year-old railroad, we believe our riders deserve better,” Seth Stein, a PANYNJ spokesperson, said.
On the other side of the Hudson, a train broke down at the WTC terminal station that evening. While this incident occurred after the afternoon rush, it triggered a ripple effect, causing cascading delays that included 20- to 30-minute wait times and platform crowding, as per Gothamist, throughout the Newark to WTC and Hoboken to WTC lines for the rest of the night.
The following morning, on July 13th, the Newport and Hoboken PATH stations experienced signal failures and track faults. Delays, wait times of 25+ minutes, and overcrowding persisted well into the afternoon.
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On July 18th, PATH displayed a notice at the Hoboken Station, reading: “Trains are leaving Hoboken Station 3-5 minutes earlier or later than scheduled. We are running the same number of trains,” and shared the following update via social media:
“We’re still working on switch problems in Hoboken, which [have] caused changes to regular schedules. Because of this, we’re temporarily turning off trip results in the RidePATH app for any trips involving Hoboken. This is to prevent wrong information from being displayed.”
Another update was shared via X on July 22nd. “Due to ongoing switch issues at Hoboken,” PATH stated, the PANYNJ is providing alternative travel options via NJ TRANSIT Rail, NJ TRANSIT Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, and New York Waterway.
Starting at 6AM on July 22nd and ending at 11:59PM on July 25th:
- NJ Transit rail will cross-honor PATH customers at Hoboken, Secaucus, + New York Penn Station
- NJ Transit Hudson Bergen Light Rail will cross-honor PATH customers at Exchange Place, Newport, + Hoboken
PATH riders can also utilize $3 discounted NY WATERWAY ferry tickets for:
- Service between HOB/NJT Terminal-Brookfield Place, from 6AM to 10AM + 3PM to 7PM
- Service between HOB/NJT Terminal-Midtown/West 39th Street, from 6:55AM to 9:35AM + 4:18PM to 7:30PM
“Trains are running every 10 minutes during rush hour due to ongoing switch issues. We know this is frustrating, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience,” PATH also said.
“We sincerely appreciate our riders’ patience, and we expect speed restrictions in and out of Hoboken station to be in effect until after Labor Day weekend. During that time, we will make alternate travel options available as needed,” the Port Authority shared with HG.
Our investigation currently suggests that the derailment may have been caused or exacerbated by the design of a guard rail, a component of the new interlocking installed at Hoboken in February.
Out of an abundance of caution, we are moving trains at slower speeds in and out of Hoboken. These speed restrictions will continue until replacement parts are fabricated, shipped, and installed. Trains are currently using Tracks 2 + 3, as the damaged part of the interlocking leads to Track 1.”
“PATH Forward will mean more reliable rides but also asks our riders to bear with us as we carry out significant work on the system to make that a reality,” Seth Stein, a PANYNJ Spokesperson, shared with HG. “Any failure of the new equipment is unacceptable, and we have brought in outside experts to prevent a future recurrence of these malfunctions.”
August 2025
Around 6:15AM on August 4th, a fire broke out underneath an Eastbound train at the Newport Station in Jersey City, filling the train with smoke. Passengers were evacuated onto the platform, and, according to CBS News, some clutched their chests as they exited the train; others received oxygen on-site, and a few were taken to the nearest hospital for smoke-related injuries.
JSQ-33, HOB-WTC, HOB-33 suspended. NWK-WTC is operating. Crew investigating reported smoke condition in the track area at NWPT. NJT rail is cross honoring PATH at HOB, NYPS, NWK. HBLR is also honoring at NWPT, EXPL, HOB. We apologize for the inconvenience.
— PATH Train (@PATHTrain) August 4, 2025
As of this writing, the Journal Square to 33rd Street and Hoboken to World Trade Center lines are suspended, according to a social media update. Service on the Hoboken to 33rd Street line has since resumed operations.
These PATH malfunctions barely skim the surface of the deeper, ongoing reliability issues plaguing the PATH system. “In the past 173 days, there have been over 280 delays or interruptions. There have been SEVEN track fires in the past 7 months. There have been over 220 elevator outages in the past 177 days,” according to the petition previously mentioned, which has sourced its data via PATH service alerts posted on social media.
How Does the Public Feel?
“Every weekend there is an issue,” one commenter wrote on a @thehobokengirl post in response to the latest PATH disruption.
“Is the PATH even functional at this point?” another one said.
A petition demanding another full closure of the Hoboken station called the system “a disaster,” stating that “it’s melting and unfolding right before our eyes, and action needs to be taken IMMEDIATELY.”
“This just can’t be stressed enough; PATH’s reputation is dying quickly, and the backlash is flowing in,” the petition states. “They are letting thousands of riders down every day, with the mere amenity of cross-honoring, with many riders saying that cross-honors aren’t even accepted when they try. PANYNJ needs to stand up, take one single look, and realize that service is not what it used to be.”
The general sentiment of the public is clear: there’s an issue and a solution is long overdue.
Public officials, including Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, are advocating for an entire overhaul of the PATH system. The mayor, who’s currently running for New Jersey governor, included in his campaign a plan surrounding NJ public transit if he were elected. Under his plan, PATH would be removed from the Port Authority, which he says “has gradually diminished [the system] over the last two decades,” and instead include it as part of an integration plan with NJ TRANSIT.
“Under the Port Authority, there has been a steady decrease in overall PATH investment,” Mayor Fulop stated. “By allowing NJ TRANSIT to manage PATH, there will be the opportunity to increase weekend and off-peak service. This could also lead to more investment in new stations, like one for the Marion section of Jersey City, which should be a priority.”
In an interview with the Hudson County View, Hoboken Mayor Bhalla voiced similar concerns. “The residents of Hudson County deserve safe and reliable transit, not a system that treats PATH riders like an afterthought,” the Mayor said.
“There needs to be accountability, plain and simple. I’m calling on the Port Authority to hold a public hearing with riders and give an explanation for the constant breakdowns and service cuts. Enough is enough.”
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