Train Services Return to World Trade Center Site

Reuters ^ | November 23, 2003 | Ellen Wulfhorst

[sarcasm]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Commuter train service reopened Sunday at the World Trade Center site, marking the first rebuilding project to be completed there and the first time the public is allowed back since Sept. 11, 2001.

The first train glided smoothly into the rebuilt station, filled with officials and politicians and uniformed train conductor David McQuillan peering out one of its side windows.

"It just feels good," said the 15-year veteran of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the train service connecting the two states under the Hudson River.

The station for what are called the PATH trains sits as it always did, below street level at the Trade Center site. While it was once topped by the 110-story twin towers, it is now open to the air.

The rebuilding took 26 months and $566 million to complete, officials said.

"It's a great morning," declared Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on hand for the reopening ceremony.

Passengers on board PATH trains were some of the luckiest people in the Trade Center vicinity the day the towers were attacked by two hijacked commercial jets.

Quick-thinking dispatchers and Port Authority workers rerouted trains after the planes struck and hustled passengers onto the last train from the Trade Center station as the towers burned overhead.

Authorities estimate 5,000 people on PATH trains escaped with their lives that day. About a quarter million people ride the PATH trains each day.

Many commuters who once rode the trains regularly to jobs in downtown Manhattan, the city's financial center, were expected to be back during Monday morning's rush hour. The reopening of the station gives the public its first renewed access to the floor of the site where the towers once stood.

And the station is the first to be completed in an array of projects planned for the Trade Center's rebuilding. Last week, eight final designs were unveiled for a memorial to honor those who died. Also in the works are several office buildings, a 1,776-foot tall "Freedom Tower" and a new transportation hub.

With the reopening of the station comes the first bit of commerce to reopen as well -- a tiny newsstand at the top of the stairs leading down to the train platforms.

"We're happy to be here," said Terry Lent, vice president of operations for Hudson News. "Maybe we'll get back to normal someday soon."

Signs designate it the World Trade Center, which officials call part of an effort to get back to business as normal. But some victim family members object that the effort at normalcy does not protect the sanctity of the place where 2,752 people died.

Patricia Reilly, whose sister died in the collapse, had advocated for officials to rename it the World Trade Center Memorial station.

"The World Trade Center is gone, along with my sister," she said angrily earlier this week. "They couldn't even give us 'World Trade Center Memorial' station."

[sarcasm]

[KellyAdmirer]

That is terrific, this really opens up the PATH system. When they open up the E lines again it will be even better. I agree with the suggestion that the word "Memorial" be added, but there's plenty of time for that and getting into a snoot about it seems kind of pointless.

[VOA]

bump

[OldFriend]

I am sorry for the families of the victims but they seem to be making a career out of fury and anger that knows no bounds.