Newport is a station on the PATH system. Located on Town Square Place at the corner of Washington Boulevard in the Newport neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey, it is served by the Hoboken–World Trade Center and Journal Square–33rd Street lines on weekdays, and by the Journal Square–33rd Street line on weekends. As of 2017 its estimated weekday use was nearly 20,000 passengers, up from the 17,000-18,000 average weekday passengers seen in 2010.
History
The station was opened on August 2, 1909 as part of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, originally constructed to connect to the Erie Railroad's Pavonia Terminal. The capitals of the station's columns are adorned with the "E", and recall its original name, Erie. After the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 1960s takeover of the system, the station was renamed Pavonia, or Pavonia Avenue, itself named for the 17thNew Netherland settlement of Pavonia. In 1988, the station became known as Pavonia/Newport to reflect the re-development of the former railyards along the banks of the Hudson River to residential, retail, and recreational uses as Newport. In 2010, the name became Newport. The station has undergone a number of transformations. During the Erie period, the station was so busy that a second platform was added to manage the flow of passengers from the over 30 passenger trains that ran in and out of the station hourly. The desire to reuse old caissons when building the H&M system meant that the tubes at this location were far inland. As a result, the actual station was not closely integrated into the Erie Railroad Terminal above, and the Erie never built a new terminal on top of the underground platforms. Therefore, a lengthy walk through inclined pedestrian tunnels was necessary in order to connect from the H&M to the passenger trains. In response to this, in 1954, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad installed a long moving sidewalk known as "the Speedwalk". It was the first such moving walkway built in the United States; built by Goodyear, it moved up a 10 percent grade at a speed of 1.5 mph. The walkway was closed within a decade due to significant changes happening above ground. It remained in place until the mid-1990s when the station was completely refurbished in response to the new office and commercial development in the area. In 1956, the Erie Railroad consolidated its operations with the Lackawanna Railroad and moved to Hoboken Terminal. A few years later, the small New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway ceased operations at the Erie Terminal, which was torn down soon afterwards. Without any reason to disembark other than some parking lots, ridership at the Erie tube station declined sharply. For nearly 30 years, the station served primarily as a transfer station between the Uptown and Downtown Tube routes, and was totally closed on evenings and weekends. Beginning in the late 1980s, the once-vacant railyards surrounding the station were turned into residential, office, and retail towers, and the neighborhood became known as Newport. As part of the redevelopment, Pavonia Station itself was renamed and underwent extensive renovations, including improved lighting, floors, walls, ceilings, artwork, and the installation of a new headhouse with escalators and elevators. By 1988, ridership had rebounded enough that it began operating 24 hours a day once again. The station underwent further renovations in 2001–2003 with the installation of an additional elevator in order to re-open the side platform to regular use after four decades of inactivity. The open steelwork beside the headhouse is the skeleton for a never-built second level that was to connect to office towers across the street via a skywalk, similar to those at the Gateway complex at Newark Penn Station. The Port Authority is currently considering whether to fund a long-proposed second entry to the station on the west side of Washington Boulevard to ease congestion.
Station layout
The station has two tracks. There is one island platform serving southbound trains and one side platform serving northbound trains. During daytime and evening hours, trains bound for Hoboken and 33rd Street use the side platform. The island platform is used for trains bound for the World Trade Center and Journal Square, and for all trains during overnight hours.
