Hudson & Manhattan / PATH Chronology
Please send corrections and additions to Bill McKelvey at mckelvey@lhry.org.
Posted on LHRy website on 21 March 2018
1873 The Hudson Tunnel Railroad Co. (predecessor to the Hudson & Manhattan) was incorporated.
1874 Work on a trans-Hudson tunnel, which eventually became the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, was begun. The Lackawanna Railroad obtained an injunction which halted construction for 5 years.
1880 A blow-out during the construction of the Hudson & Manhattan rail tunnel in Jersey City killed 20 workers and delayed completion of the project for 26 years.
1901 Work on the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad tunnel between NJ & NY was restarted by William Gibbs McAdoo.
1904 The New York and New Jersey Railroad, successor to the Hudson Tunnel Railroad Co., broke through to the tunnel constructed from the New York side. Chief engineer, Charles Jacobs, and workmen walked from NJ to NY through what became the “uptown” tunnel.
1906 The first cars of the structurally unique Stillwell design were ordered for the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. Lewis B. Stillwell made his home at Princeton, NJ. He was chief electrical engineer of Westinghouse Electric at 27, worked on a half-dozen important railway electrifications, and designed some of the ruggedest passenger cars ever built.
1907 The first Hudson & Manhattan Railway train operated between Hoboken and Morton St., NYC on Dec. 28th.
1908 President Theodore Roosevelt, sitting in the White House, sent a ceremonial telegram to the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Power House in Jersey City to signal the start of the first direct rail service between New York and New Jersey (Hoboken) by tunnel under the Hudson River on Feb. 25th. This historical event connected the island of Manhattan with NJ by rail for the very first time.
1909 Hudson & Manhattan Railroad service was inaugurated between Hudson Terminal, New York and Exchange Place, Jersey City. ♦ Special ladies only cars were introduced on the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad.
1910 Public Service Railway opened their Hudson Place Terminal at Hoboken. It facilitated the connection of their street car lines with the Hudson & Manhattan tubes and the Lackawanna ferries. The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad opened their Henderson Street Car Shop in Jersey City.
1913 The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad began carrying mail between Hudson Terminal (NYC) and Manhattan Transfer (NJ) on Nov. 17th.
1929 Hudson & Manhattan Railroad ridership peaked at 112.3 million
1937 The Newark City Subway and the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad were both routed into the new Newark Penn Station. Since the Hudson & Manhattan trains were now provided with PRR train connections at Newark, Manhattan Transfer was abandoned. The new station was also served by urban, suburban and interurban buses; All-Service Vehicles and had a covered taxi stand as well.
1954 The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 11th.
1957 A strike by employees of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad stopped service for their 65,000 riders for 32.5 days beginning 3.28.
1958 Herman T. Stichman, trustee of the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan railroad announced that they planned to drop 252 one-way train trips due to losses in the number of passengers. The World's first production air-conditioned rapid transit cars, the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad "K" cars, went into service.
1962 The Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) was chartered by law to assume ownership, operation, and modernization of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad "tube trains."
1966 One of the original Hudson & Manhattan Railroad "black cars," #256, the last to be retired, was donated to the National Museum of Transport at St. Louis.
1967 In April the Central Railroad of NJ terminated its ferry service between Jersey City and lower Manhattan. Its trains were rerouted to Penn Station - Newark, where patrons could transfer to PATH. The PATH - Pennsylvania Railroad joint service agreement was terminated and PATH assumed full responsibility for the service between Jersey City and Newark. In November, the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad terminated its ferry service from Hoboken to Manhattan and its passengers transferred to PATH at Hoboken.
1971 The new World Trade Center terminal replaced the old Hudson Terminal in lower Manhattan. PATH’s new terminal was NYC’s first air conditioned subway terminal and the first rail terminal built in the NJ - NY Metropolitan area since 1937.
1972 The cornerstone was laid for the new PATH Journal Square Transportation Center in Jersey City.
1974 The first segment of the new PATH Operations Control Center at the Journal Square Transportation Center was opened in December.
1975 The PATH Journal Square Transportation Center was dedicated. It included a new PATH station and Operations Control Center, an enclosed bus terminal, a 10-story office building, a shopping center and parking for over 600 cars.
1978 The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (PATH) Tunnels were designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
1983 (February 25th) PATH celebrated their Diamond Jubilee, marking a milestone of 4.3 billion passengers carried since 1908.
19XX The new Harrison Car Maintenance Facility, replacing the Henderson Street shops, was opened
1997 PATH asked the Federal Railroad Administration to exempt them from their oversight to help reduce the PATH annual deficit. The FRA jurisdiction dated from the period when former Hudson & Manhattan trains shared track between Harrison and Journal Square with passenger trains of the PRR.
1998 PATH won the top American Public Transit Association prize for heavy rail system.
1999 PATH ridership was 67.3 million, highest since 1947.
2000 The Federal Railroad Administration decided that new PATH cars would not have to meet the stringent crash worthiness standards which apply to railroads. This ruling would save PATH 25% on the cost of new cars. The ruling paved the way for PATH, with the second oldest fleet of rapid transit cars in the US. to purchase 295 new cars.
2001 PATH increased their fare from $1 to $1.50 on 3.25. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey approved the first phase of a $1 billion program to replace or rehabilitate all 340 aging PATH cars and install a new signal system that will improve reliability. This was the largest investment in PATH since the PA acquired the system in 1962. On Sept. 11th terrorists hi-jacked four commercial passenger jet planes and crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. The resulting fires caused the collapse of both 110 story towers as well as four adjacent office buildings. Many other nearby buildings were damaged. PATH service to WTC and Exchange Place was terminated. One empty PATH train was partly damaged by debris in the WTC station.
2003 On 6.29, PATH service was restored to an enlarged, modernized Exchange Place Station in Jersey City for the first time since 9-11-01. The world’s largest utility grid power failure occurred on the afternoon of 8.14. The outage, which primarily affected north Jersey, paralyzed the region’s transportation system. It brought Amtrak, NJ Transit, PATH, Newark City Subway and Hudson Bergen Light Rail trains to a standstill for hours. PATH train service from NJ resumed to the former World Trade Center site on 11.23 with the same cars which were in the last train to depart WTC before the collapse.
2008 PATH Celebrated their 100th anniversary of the opening in 1908 by the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad.