NJ PATH trains

Though I am currently based in Boston, I lived in NJ prior to this, so this post is actually about the public transportation subway system in NJ-NYC, called the PATH train.

I moved out to the "sixth borough" pretty much as soon as we found out I was preggers, and spent most of my pregnancy commuting to and from the city on the NJ PATH trains ... however it wasn't until AFTER baby was born that I realized not all stops have elevator access!!! Once you are toting a stroller around with you, you really discover how difficult it is to get around!

I now had to plan out my trips into the city, or even to other parts of Jersey City, very carefully ...

So far here's what I've found:

Journal Square station:

Has an elevator and is fairly easy to use, but you have to take one elevator from the street level to the concourse, walk through the glass doors out to where the escalators are, enter a small door next to Duane Reade and THEN take another elevator down to the platform to get on the PATH train. It takes a while ... but is clean and you'll see a lot of strollers on there.Hoboken station: elevator access is pretty good from here!

Newport-Pavonia:

Relatively easy. There's an elevator up from the platform, and then you walk up a long ramp. There's another elevator to take you to the street level.

33rd Street in Manhattan:

It's always crowded here, and lots of people like to use the elevator to get up to the street level so I've had to wait for it many times (and it really irks me that many of these people definitely don't seem to NEED the elevator). Also there's a separate handicapped-accessible ramp to the platforms here. If you need to switch to the NRQW trains (NYC Subway), you have to traipse up a loooooong hallway (uphill!) and then go through the handicapped entrance to get to the elevator which is usually pretty dingy and smells bad.

42nd Street/Times Square:

GROSS!!! The elevators here are sooooo disgusting! They literally STINK and I had to hold my nose. I felt so bad taking my baby in these elevator. The one from the concourse level up to the street is the worst. I also hate that the street level down to the concourse and the concourse to the platform for the NRQW are quite far from each other. Geez. Thanks for making it convenient.

I've also heard that the Exchange Place stop on the PATH is elevator-accessible, but I never had a chance to check it out.

Unfortunately the Grove Street stop does not have an elevator, which I find really annoying because it seems as though there are a lot of young families in that area, plus Van Vorst and Hamilton Park are fairly close to there. With all the new buildings going up in that area and the attempt to lure families to move out to what is otherwise a great area, why wouldn't they make the station accessible? I have talked to other moms in the area though, and they said that they easily carry their strollers up the stairs and usually can find someone to help them lift the stroller over the barrier. Personally when I went there, I couldn't figure out which staircase to go up and must have picked the wrong one because it seemed like a lot of stairs. And no one seemed to be around to help get over the barrier either (thank god I was wearing the Baby Bjorn that day!).

Though I no longer live in NYC, I'm sure I will head back every so often, so I will most definitely report on any further discoveries out there!