Train rolls into WTC station
2003-11-24 11:24
New York - The first commuter train to the World Trade Centre since the terrorist attacks more than two years ago rolled into the station on Sunday carrying dignitaries and victims' family members.
"It's a resumption of normalcy," said New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, who was joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Senators Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg in the second car of the PATH train.
The train that made the short trip from Exchange Place in Jersey City, New Jersey, to the temporary World Trade Centre station was the last train to leave to the centre before the attack on September 11, 2001.
Thelma Stuart, whose husband, Port Authority police officer Walwyn Stuart, was instrumental in safely evacuating that train - and who then returned to the trade centre, where he died - rode in the first car with her three-year-old daughter, Amanda.
"It's a great honour," she said.
"Today, we're proud and we're pleased to bring back to the people of this region something that was taken from us on September 11," Anthony Coscia, chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said at a ceremony after the inaugural ride. Regular passenger service was scheduled to start later in the day.
The station, in the northeast corner of ground zero, was restored over 16 months for about $253m, after crews gutted two train tunnels down to their iron frames and installed nearly 2 100m of new track. A permanent, $2bn transit hub will take its place in 2006.
The station is expected to accommodate up to 50 000 passengers a day. Before the attacks, the station handled about 67 000 daily passengers, who switched to ferries, cars and New Jersey Transit trains and buses after the station was destroyed.
- AP