Port Authority Blames Downturn for Traffic Drop

NEW YORK CITY-Citing a down economy regionally as well as globally, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says traffic in the first quarter declined at the region’s airports and the seaport. Also down is traffic across the four bridges and two tunnels operated by the Port Authority and on the PATH system linking northern New Jersey cities with Manhattan via rail.

In a release, the authority cites job losses on Wall Street and throughout the New York-New Jersey region, “as well as the global financial downturn that is impacting everything from tourism to international cargo to and from the port.” Year-over-year, the region’s three airports saw an 11.6% decline in passenger traffic from 25 million to 22 million, and a 29.8% drop in air cargo volume, says a Port Authority spokesman. At the Port of New York and New Jersey, cargo volume declined 17.4% from 996,000 to 823,000 TEUs, or 20-foot container equivalent units, in what the authority says is the biggest quarterly drop in more than 15 years.

Traffic across the George Washington, Bayonne and Goethals Bridges, the Outerbridge Crossing and the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels was down 5.4% for the quarter. Automobile traffic was down 4.9%, while truck traffic declined 11.6% and there were 3% fewer bus trips across the crossings, according to the authority. The biggest impact was felt at the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, “traditional crossings for commuters going to and from Manhattan jobs,” the release states. Ridership on the PATH system declined 2.3%, or 410,000 riders, marking the first quarterly drop-off in usage since the fourth quarter of 2003, the spokesman says.