New WTC Hub For PATH Train Opens

The long-delayed PATH train hub at World Trade Center partially opens today.

At the center is the Oculus, which from the outside looks like the spine peeled out of a fish. Below, with half of the glass installed, light shines through its ribs, the longest one reaching 202 feet in the sky. “It’s awesome and I mean that in the actual sense of the word ‘awesome.’ It induces awe,” said Jessica Lappin, director of the Downtown Alliance. PATH riders can get a view of the Oculus in the coming weeks when the temporary PATH station that went up after the 9/11 attacks gets dismantled. The platform is the third part of the Port Authority’s WTC hub that sprawls beneath the 16-acre site where the Twin Towers once stood. It has earned the reputation of the world’s most expensive train station, over budget at $3.9 billion. For that price tag, transit riders and visitors get a facility decked out in white marble that is spacious, without any corners — all cured and sleek. It is well lit and bright, in stark contrast to the city subway system’s dank stations nearby.