It's the Brian Lair show on WNYC.

I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom sitting in for Brian today.

Now, if you ride the path trade between New Jersey and New York,

you probably don't need me to tell you it's been a rough summer. Fires, a derailment, signal failures,

and a brand new $31 million track project that was supposed to make things more reliable,

but instead led to more chaos. Some commuters have taken to calling

the path riders own, this the path rider's own summer of hell. One fire at a new port station

earlier this month sent 19 people to the hospital. And the National Transportation Safety Board

says it was caused by electrical arcing, sparks jumping from the third rail to a

train car. Meanwhile, Hoboken terminal is closing again over Labor Day weekend to finish repairs

on a track interlocking that malfunctioned in July causing that derailment. So what went wrong and what

will it take to fix the path system short and long term?

Joining us is Larry Higgs, Transportation and Commuting reporter for NJ.com and the Star Ledger,

who's been covering what path riders are living through the summer. Hey, Larry, welcome back to WNYC.

Thanks. Pleasure to be here. And listeners, Pathriders, especially, how has this summer of hell affected you? Have you been caught in one of the fires, the derailment delays, or the Hoboken shutdowns? Have you had to change your commute or even rethink living in Hoboken or Jersey City because of Path? Give us a call and help us report this story, call or text your questions or comments to

212-433 WNYC.

That's 212-433-9692.

Larry, you've covered commuter rail in New Jersey for years.

How does this summer for Path compare to the summer

of hell New Jersey transit riders endured in 2017? Well, it's similar in some aspects and different

in others. The similarity is that these are infrastructure-driven problems. You know, as you

mentioned, problems with the interlocking.

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