Coming to NYC from New Jersey: Take the PATH Train

As people arrive to the city that never sleeps they may be a little bit hesitant to move far from where they’ve started. It’s one of the biggest problems of people in a strange place in general but it’s particularly problematic if you’re arriving by train. The different neighborhoods that are the train stops that make up the island of Manhattan are as wily and different as can be and unfortunately, most of them are littered with panhandlers and shysters who give the city an all around bad image.

If you’re coming into New York City on the train you’re coming in on one of four lines; PATH train (commuter line from New Jersey) Metro-North (commuter train from points North and East; Westchester, Connecticut, etc) LIRR (commuter train from points generally East; Long Island) or Amtrak (everywhere else; generally from points West or far North all over the country)

PATH Train: PATH train stations are found in a number of spots in Manhattan and all the PATH station spots in general are different. Three different lines of the PATH train all have the same stops in Manhattan. Two lines originate in Hoboken and come directly into the city and one line which originates at the Journal Square station and also stops off at Grove Street and Pavonia/Newport stations in New Jersey.

The first spot is the very busy Christopher Street Station in the West Village. The PATH then runs up The Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) and stops at 9th Street, also in the West Village, 14th Street (a go-between in the West Village and Chelsea) 23rd Street (Chelsea) and 33rd Street & 6th Avenue which is where Broadway and 6th Avenue converge and is right near Macy’s in Herald Square, the Empire State Building, the Manhattan Mall, and is just nearby the Javits Convention Center as well as Penn Station.

Christopher Street, being in the West Village is a mix of residential and commercial traffic as there are many bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and boutique hotels in the area. While there are many things going on at Christopher Street, many people who make their way into the city via Christopher Street make it a point to find their haunts nearby rather than on this busy thoroughfare.

9th Street is much more residential, despite all the commercial traffic which threads its way up the Avenue of the Americas. There are many fine restaurants slapped up alongside retail and restaurant chains like Blockbuster Video and Coldstone Creamery, which makes it not really a place for tourists.

Just five blocks north, however, at 14th Street you’re confronted with a bit of a mess. There are only a few streets that have traffic going in both directions (East/West) in Manhattan and these are bound to have a lot more pedestrian and commuter traffic and the businesses which follow them for their buying dollar attention; 14th Street is one of these two way streets.

23rd Street station is in Chelsea near the Flatiron Building and nearby the Fashion Institue of Technology. It is also just south of the Flower District but looming to your north is Herald Square and the impending Times Square; there’s a strange sort of quiet which can be shattered at any time in this always buzzing area. While 23rd Street is another two lane, two way street, like 14th Street, there is not nearly the same level of traffic here as at 14th Street.

Finally 33rd Street is where the PATH ends it trek and this is an area which has got all sorts of melee. 33rd Street is probably best known for it’s proximity to Herald Square and Macy’s. This is the spot where the Thanksgiving Day parade, hosted each year by Macy’s has it’s final performances. 33rd Street Station is also a hot spot for the business commuters as there is the Empire State Building just nearby. 33rd Street also houses the Manhattan Mall where there are numerous stores, office space on the 3rd through 7th floor, and the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles operates on the 8th floor.

With all of this office and retail space nearby these stops, there is plenty of reasons for people from New Jersey who live near a PATH station to come in to work in New York. There are two other lines of PATH train, one originating in Hoboken and one in Newark which come in to the World Trade Center site. While there was a period of time when the PATH stopped operating, they were quickly back up as people trudged on and life struggled back to normalcy. There are many interesting things which exist in lower Manhattan including the Federal Building, Federal Reserve bank, and Battery Park City to name just a few. It is in these spots that many of the huge office buildings which exist downtown live.

227,000 people use the PATH each work day and there were almost 67 Million trips sold last year; the PATH train is an essential component to many people’s daily lives.