Harrison is a PATH station located on the Northeast Corridor, a stone’s throw from Newark Penn. It’s also one of the newer PATH stations as far as rebuilds go, being rebuilt in 2018-2019. With that in mind, let’s take a look at it.
The station sits atop the 5-track Northeast Corridor (2 of which are used for PATH), and consists of two side platforms. The Newark-bound and Manhattan/Jersey City-bound sides are largely the same, with no free crossovers. The platforms consist of countdown clocks, benches, wastebaskets, the usual stuff, along with modern glass headhouses. The station, having been rebuilt in 2018-19, is fully accessible as well, and it’s even a stone’s throw from Sports Illustrated Stadium. The station’s mezzanine is also modern, with ticketing machines, faregates, TAPP readers, and there’s even a bus connection outside (to a bus that has an identity crisis, though at worst is hourly). It’s also a pretty nice place to railfan the Corridor, and you even have the giant imposing drawbridge that doesn’t open much (if ever) not that far upstream. Neat!
The good: It’s a modern and relatively very new station! It’s accessible, looks cool, has a decent amount of parking, and the area nearby has been facing redevelopment in recent years (by the looks of things). There’s even a bus connection!
The bad: PATH only shows up every 20 minutes, the bus sometimes has an identity crisis in frequency (sometimes every 15, sometimes hourly), and there’s several bigass parking lots. Now, I get that every system invariably needs that one station that’s a parking sink, and this unfortunately got the short end of the stick on that front, but c’mon, can’t Newark fill that job with its parking garage instead?
Nearby points of interest: Sports Illustrated Stadium, home of Gotham FC of the NWSL. Wait, there’s someone else calling that stadium home, too? Ugh, okay, I guess I’m supposed to acknowledge the existence of the Red Bulls… I think I’m gonna go puke now. Fuck the Red Bulls, NYCFC or bust. Am I allowed to slander their supporter group as a casual NYCFC enjoyer? Anyways, what else is nearby? Oh, a strip mall and a Seabra. Whatever.
Transit connections:
PATH (Red/WTC-NWK)
NJT bus (40)
Overall, I’LL TELL YOU HOW I FEEL ABOUT THE BLOODY RED BULLS! SHITTY ENERGY DRINK, SHITTY MLS TEAM!!! THEY COULDN’T EVEN MAKE IT INTO THE PLAYOFFS! As for the station itself, it’s actually quite nice and rather modern.
Rating: 8.5/10
