PATH Service Shutdown on 33rd Street Line
Well, there was apparently a small manhole fire just east of the Christopher Street station in Manhattan today. Depending on which news report you believe, it supposedly started underneath a PATH train! All of the passengers were evacuated, and there were no injuries. Anyhow, what does this have to do with me? I take the PATH in order to commute to Manhattan when the job requires it. Today was such a day that I had to work in our lower Manhattan office, nowhere near to where this commotion occurred. However, there was a NYLUG meeting this evening, which happens in midtown. It's easiest (I think) for me to take the PATH from midtown when I'm in midtown. Makes sense. Good thing that I knew the service was shut down ahead of the meeting in midtown, so I knew that was a no-go. Everyone was saying "Wow, we feel really sorry for the folks that live in Jersey, they're gonna have one heck of a commute tonight". Fearing the worst, I took the NYC subway down to the WTC PATH station, and hopped on the train there. I think that they had increased service frequency to that station as much as they could, since there was a train waiting for me at 10PM, and it left shortly thereafter (with the train operator telling everyone that was getting on the train that there were plenty of seats in the rear of the train - problem being everyone needed to be towards the front because of where they were going). The train got quickly underway, and I think that I got into the subway at 9:45PM or something similar, and I got out of my station in NJ at 10:20PM. 35 minutes is not a bad commute for NYC, especially since I took a massive detour from where I was in order to get home. There are people that would kill for that commute, and that's what I get when everything's messed up. So I guess this PATH commuter had some good luck! It's unclear whether or not this will be repaired for the morning rush, so I'm planning to leave a little early since the route that I take is the only one operating between NJ and NY, and I'm expecting more crowding on the already jam-packed train. Good thing the customer meeting wars relocated (for unrelated reasons) from midtown to downtown! :)