->[[http://youtu.be/f8RPbbaTAag?t=8m52s "Stand clear of the closing doors." bing, bong.]]

The Port Authority Trans Hudson (better known as PATH), is odd as far as subways in the United States go. Operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (who you may better known for operating the crossings over the Hudson River or the New York metropolitan area's much-maligned airports), the PATH is actually descended from a railroad known as the Hudson and Manhattan. As such, it has more in common with suburban rail, as the system runs between New York City proper and several cities in New Jersey. Nonetheless, it's still a key system in a metropolitan area where real estate is real hard to come by.

If you can finagle a transit plan with it, it'll save you money too. Single-rides are $2.75, and discounts are available for bulk buys and weekly or monthly passes. Compare this with the toll on every single bridge and tunnel across the Hudson River being $15 (only collected one-way entering New York City, but that's still about three times what two trips on PATH would cost) and the planned introduction of congestion pricing for driving into Manhattan south of 60th Street in June 2024 (numbers are tentatively set to be $15 during peak hours and $3.75 off-peak).

The system is one of the few mass transit ones that runs 24/7, albeit on a very infrequent schedule late at night.

It has two main terminals on each side of the Hudson — in New York they're the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and 33rd Street (right next to New York Penn Station) in Midtown, while on the Jersey side they're Hoboken and Newark Penn Station. Yes, there are two major stations in the area called Penn Station, distinguished by cities whose names are pretty easily mistaken for one another.[[note]][[Creator/EddieIzzard You start at Penn Station and end at Penn Station, how lucky is that? "Is this Penn Station? We've just come from Penn Station. We've gone 'round in a circle, lads, get back on the train."]][[/note]] During normal weekday rush hour, four lines are run that generally begin and end at each of these four terminals (the exception is the 33rd Street-Newark line, which only goes as far as Journal Square on the near side of Newark Bay because Newark and Harrison are significantly more distant than the other stations and the train makes multiple stops in Manhattan — doing both would make trips too long). Overnight and on weekends, two runs are maintained (Newark-WTC and Journal Square-33rd St. via Hoboken).

It has a close cousin in the [[UsefulNotes/PhiladelphiaSubways Port Authority Transit Corporation]] (PATCO) Speedline, a subway run by the UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} equivalent of the Port Authority, the Delaware River Port Authority, which connects Center City Philadelphia to ''its'' New Jersey suburbs (from [[{{Gangsterland}} Camden]] to [[{{Suburbia}} Collingswood]] and [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Haddonfield]]), and similarly runs 24/7.

It [[CaliforniaDoubling occasionally doubles as]] the much more famous UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway on TV.