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Pressure is building on local officials to create short-term transit solutions for downtown Manhattan, such as express bus lanes, to accommodate the thousands of workers whose daily commute has been disrupted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
The most critical problem is finding alternate transportation for the 60,000 daily New Jersey commuters who used the PATH station located deep under the World Trade Center that was destroyed when the towers collapsed. Those workers face commutes that can stretch to two hours each way as they use a combination of ferries, buses, commuter trains and subways.
"The most acute problem right now is the fact that the World Trade Center PATH station was knocked out," says Carl Weisbrod, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, the lower Manhattan business improvement district. "We need to create a temporary PATH line or other means for these commuters to come in quickly."
Corporate flight
Some analysts fear that if the commute remains difficult, the flight of companies to New Jersey will accelerate, hindering long-term efforts to rebuild downtown.
"We're concerned that lower Manhattan will not come back unless you do something for transportation," says Lee Sander, co-chairman of the Empire State Transportation Alliance, a transit organization drawn from civic, business and environmental groups.
It isn't clear how many of the 60,000 users of the PATH...