2 PATH stations to reopen on weekends after Superstorm Sandy repairs

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Two PATH stations will soon reopen on weekends, after nearly a year of repairs from Superstorm Sandy.

Service at the World Trade Center and Exchange Place stations will resume the weekend of December 20th.

The Port Authority says 280,000 square feet of metal tunnel surfaces and equipment had to be cleaned of salt residue left by flooding from Sandy and corroded metal had to be replaced.

In addition, thousands of feet of new cables were installed for new computerized signals for increased operational safety.

"We sincerely thank our customers for their patience and understanding during these weekend service outages and are happy to have the service back for the holidays,'' said PATH Director and General Manager Stephen Kingsberry. "These repairs and upgrades, while tremendously inconvenient for our riders, are absolutely vital to ensuring a state-of-good repair, undoing the corrosive damage from Sandy and making critical safety upgrades to the PATH system."

Billybey Ferry Company LLC, which operated an alternate ferry service during the World Trade Center-to-Newark line outages, will continue the weekend service after the stations reopen and assess ridership later in 2015 to determine if the service is sustainable.

BillyBey's current ferry fare of $2.50 was subsidized by PATH and expected Federal Transit Administration Sandy recovery grants, and the company will set a new fare.

The Port Authority said Sandy's floodwaters left behind an insidious salt residue that rusts metal cables, equipment and the shell of the tunnel itself.