The Hoboken Hudson & Manhattan Railroad station opened on February 25, 1908 and seems like it hasn't changed a whole lot since that date. It is beneath the bus plaza along the north side of Hoboken Terminal with entrances well placed (except for the Hudson Bergen Light Rail at the southern end of the train tracks) to serve both commuters transferring to New Jersey Transit and people trying to reach the actual city of Hoboken north of the station. The station has the usual high frequency terminal layout with three tracks and three platforms. It is located on an east-west axis with trains heading to 33rd Street turning a full 90 degrees in the various tunnels and switches (and going downhill quite a bit) before they reach the Uptown Tubes to enter Manhattan. The track layout is Track 3-Platform 3-Track 2-Platform 2-Track 1-Exit Platform 1. In normal operations it seems that 33rd Street trains use the platform for Track 3 and 2 and World Trade Center trains use tracks 2 or one. The platforms have numerous round blue columns that decorative blue tops where they meet to hold up the station ceiling that is a series of lots of arches. On these blue tops are H's that are stenciled in white. The station has received modern blue signage but this is in a historic font for the historic nature of the station. The column signs are small and spell out Hoboken. The walls of the tracks, platforms and mezzanine aren't tiled, just painted (a slightly peeling) baby blue. There is one tiny portion of the side platform that is tiled in an odd light and dark grey scheme. Black letters that have now been removed from the wall that once said Hoboken. This tiny section looks straight out of the 1950s feels like a prototype for how the station might have been 'modernized.'
The station has two main fare control areas: One is just beyond the bumper blocks on the same level as the platform. The turnstiles are situated in a way that passengers can transfer between the two island platforms but the one, side exit platform has its own bank of turnstiles that even permit entry. The street elevator is located here (to a silver self-contained landing at street level) between the bus plaza and Hudson Place. Two staircases lead up to the surface; one directly to the railroad tracks side of the bus plaza, this has a large green sign outside of it that says To PATH Trains: New York City: World Trade Center, 33 Street. The other goes upstairs to a short corridor that leads to another staircase at the edge of the Bush canopy along the tracks of Hoboken Terminal. It is directly along the waiting room. A neat old sign says To R.R. Trains And Subway above doors that lead to this entrance.
The station has an additional entrance towards the other end of the platforms. Each platform has two staircases that lead up to a nice, large mezzanine. This mezzanine has two separate fare control areas on each side non connected fare control areas. The south fare control area leads to a single staircase (clad in green kiosk walls) that leads up to the edge of the trainshed at the northern end of the bus loop where track 1 (a half-length track) begins. The north fare control area is more heavily used and it has a similar large number of turnstiles that lead out to two staircases, both of these staircases are also clad in green historic feeling kiosk walls. One reaches the surface still covered by the bus loop roof, the other just west of the end of the bus loop. These lead out to Hudson Place (near some old railroad tracks that remain embedded in the cobblestones) across from River Street. This is the best exit for passengers trying to actually enter Hoboken.
Superstorm Sandy: The station was extensively flooded during Superstorm Sandy including the elevator shaft. Train service to the station didn't return until December 19, 2012 to 33rd Street with WTC Service not returning until January 30th because of issues restoring the connection between Newport and Exchange Place. The elevator (seen with water gushing in in this video at minute 20) was surrounded by plywood walls at both landings and a sign on it said it would reopen on June 11, 2013
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Last Updated: 17 February, 2013 |
