The Exchange Place station is a
station on the
Port Authority Trans–Hudson (PATH) rail system in the
Paulus Hook neighborhood of
Jersey City
Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous ,
Hudson County
Hudson County is a List of counties in New Jersey, county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River, the No ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. The station is on the
Newark–World Trade Center
Newark–World Trade Center is a rapid transit service operated by the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). It is colored red on the PATH service map and trains on this service display red marker lights. This service operates from Pennsylvania S ...
line between
Newark Penn Station and
World Trade Center all week and the
Hoboken–World Trade Center
Hoboken–World Trade Center is a rapid transit service operated by the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). It is colored green on the PATH service map and trains on this service display green marker lights. This service operates from the Hoboken ...
line during the day on weekdays to service
Hoboken Terminal
Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by eight NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, an NJ T ...
. Exchange Place provides access to the Jersey City waterfront and
a station on the
Hudson–Bergen Light Rail, where connections are available to
Bayonne
Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...
and
North Bergen.
Exchange Place station opened on July 19, 1909, as part of the original opening of the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad
The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owne ...
between the former
Pennsylvania Railroad terminal at Exchange Place and
Hudson Terminal
Hudson Terminal was a rapid transit station and office-tower complex in the Radio Row neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Opened during 1908 and 1909, it was composed of a Railway terminal, terminal station for the Hudson & Manhat ...
. The station headhouse was rebuilt in 1989. Exchange Place station flooded after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
and was closed until June 29, 2003, when it became a temporary terminal. Service returned to World Trade Center on November 23, 2003.
History
Original station
The original Exchange Place station opened on July 19, 1909 at the western end of the
Downtown Hudson Tubes adjacent to the
Pennsylvania Railroad station and
ferry terminal
A passenger terminal is a structure in a port which services passengers boarding and leaving water vessels such as ferry, ferries, cruise ships and ocean liners. Depending on the types of vessels serviced by the terminal, it may be named (for e ...
. The above-ground entrance and platforms were refurbished in the late 1960s and early 1970s after the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...
took over operations of the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad
The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owne ...
.
A derailment on April 26, 1942 at this station resulted in five deaths and over 200 injuries. In that incident, the train operator Louis Vierbucken was charged with manslaughter, as he was under the influence of liquor. Court records recount that he "began to go faster and faster, disregarding warning signals and curves" and then the train derailed at the station.
Present day
The platforms were lengthened in 1987 to allow the station to accommodate eight-car trains. The present-day station entrance pavilion at Exchange Place was constructed at a cost of $66 million,
and was dedicated on September 13, 1989. At this time, the surrounding
Paulus Hook area was beginning to undergo
revitalization with new office building construction. In April 1994, a new entrance to the Exchange Place station was opened, making the station ADA accessible. The new entrance was glass-enclosed and featured two elevators which led to a lower-level passageway down, from where another elevator went down the short distance to platform level.

The Exchange Place station was closed as a result of the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, due to water from firefighting flooding the tunnels. Before the attacks, the station served 16,000 passengers daily.
The
World Trade Center station was also crucial, as that station contained a loop that enabled trains to turn around and reverse direction. New trackwork was installed at a cost of $160 million,
which included an
interlocking
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks inte ...
to allow the trains to switch tracks, thus enabling trains to terminate at Exchange Place.
While the station was closed, the eight-car-long station platforms were lengthened by two car lengths so they could accommodate 10-car trains. On June 29, 2003, the Exchange Place PATH station reopened, restoring services to Newark and Hoboken.
On November 23, 2003, service was restored to the
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as " Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...
with the reopening of the
World Trade Center station.
In February 2006, the
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within and connecting to the United States. It was created ...
(TSA) established a pilot project to test airport-style security screening at the Exchange Place station.
In 2012, the station was inundated by of saltwater from the Hudson River, which had overflowed as a result of
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
. The PANYNJ later announced a resiliency project in which it planned to replace the glass revolving doors and windows that surround the turnstiles with a seven-foot-high concrete wall and aquarium glass several inches thick. The project would include in the installation of two
Kevlar
Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s as ...
curtains.
In June 2019, the Port Authority released the PATH Improvement Plan.
As part of the plan, two additional cross-corridors were to be added at Exchange Place.
The construction of the cross-corridors was expected to be completed by 2022.
From January 2019 until June 2020, the Newark-World Trade Center route terminated at Exchange Place on almost all weekends for Sandy-related repairs, except on holiday weekends. The truncation was initially expected to last through all of 2020, but ended in June 2020, six months ahead of schedule.
Station layout
The station entrance is located approximately west of the former, original station entrance. The station features three -long escalators that go down long and provide access to the platform level, located beneath street level.
Connections are available to the
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail at street level.
West of the station (railroad north), there are five trackways: two outer tracks for Hoboken, two inner tracks for Newark, and one stub-end track connecting each of the Newark tracks. East of the station (railroad south), both lines continue into their weekday terminus.
The station has two vestibules, each containing one
side platform
A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...
and one track for trains in a given direction.
The platforms are connected through several corridors. There are
switch
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...
es within the platform at the far western end of the station, where the HOB-WTC line's tracks diverge. As a result, only NWK-WTC trains can serve the whole platform.
Nearby attractions
Nearby attractions include the
Colgate Clock,
Goldman Sachs Tower,
Harborside Financial Center,
Paulus Hook, and the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse.
References
External links
PATH - Exchange Place*
{{PATH (rail system)
PATH stations in New Jersey
Railway stations in Hudson County, New Jersey
Railway stations located underground in New Jersey
Transportation in Jersey City, New Jersey
1909 establishments in New Jersey
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1909