About the "Temporary" PATH Station...

Curbed mentions a bit in the Sun about the fate of the World Trade Center PATH station. Last week, the director of the Port Authority resigned. He was closely linked to sex-o-holic Spitzer, and newly minted Governor Paterson supposedly forced him out. Paterson's new choice might take this opportunity to scrap plans to build a new World Trade Center Gateway for the PATH, instead opting to spend the money in Penn Station. Shifting the money to Penn Station is good news for suburbanites, but not so much for urban dwellers relying on the PATH.

In the months after September 11th, the region's transportation agencies painted a rosy picture of the future of downtown transportation. The MTA and Port Authority promised a massive investment and the integration of the subways and PATH trains in a massive Fulton Street hub to rival the other three or four other great transit hubs in the city. The Port Authority and MTA in a seeming competition to outdo the other, promised grand entrances to their respective portions of the station.

Then reality sunk in. The MTA started cutting back on the underground tubes connecting various subway lines. The Port Authority clipped off Calatrava's soaring "wings" of the original station design. Now all that remains of the once grand entranceway to lower Manhattan is a collection of unfinished concrete.

The Port Authority certainly has an obligation to maximize the effectiveness of its financial resources, but let's not forget the agency lost millions of dollars when it failed to deliver the World Trade Center site to developer Larry Silverstein. Meanwhile, someone (here's looking at you Jon) should remind Paterson that the Port Authority is a bi-state agency.