On Thursday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced PATH had received the American Public Transportation Association’s highest honor, APTA’s 2022 Outstanding Public Transportation System Achievement Award for railroads with more than 20 million riders annually.
APTA said the development and implementation of the $1 billion PATH Improvement Plan (PIP) was a key factor in its decision. Rolled out in 2019, the PIP had three components including increasing capacity, reducing delays through expanded maintenance and enhancing the customer experience through new technology and additional personnel. The plan will result in increased capacity through the acquisition of additional rail cars, expansion of station platforms and utilization of a new signal system to run trains more frequently.
The 2022 APTA Awards recognize organizations and leaders in American public transportation that have demonstrated significant leadership, high standards of excellence, and innovations to advance public transportation.
“This is an extraordinary honor for PATH, and a well-deserved recognition of its caliber of leadership and the dedication of the PATH workforce to its customers, day in and day out,” Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole said. “It’s also a measure of the value the Board and our executive leadership places on customer service across the agency.”
The Port Authority said the award came as ridership continues to recover from low periods that were a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, PATH Averaged more 281,000 riders per weekday and served more than 81 million riders in 2019. The current passenger numbers stand at about 50 percent of June 2019 figures – a marked increase over the May 2022 daily ridership.