The Port of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) handled 7,471,131 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo in 2019, breaking the previous annual record of 7,179,788 TEUs set in 2018.
In 2019, the port handled 5,231,418 loaded TEUs, surpassing the loaded imports handled by the Port of Long Beach in California, elevating the PANYNJ to No. 2 in the nation for the first time in two decades, PANYNJ officials said in a press release.
The port also set a record for cargo handled by rail, moving 664,987 containers, up 3 percent over the previous record set in 2018.
Cargo growth was bolstered by a 2.6 percent increase in imported goods compared with 2018 levels, port officials said.
Meanwhile, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp. (PATH) recorded the highest weekday ridership on the rail system in 2019, averaging 284,380 daily riders.
The highest one-day ridership recorded in 2019 was 311,317, which occurred on July 24.
During 2019, PATH handled 82.22 million passengers, the second highest annual ridership on record.
Last year, PATH unveiled a $1 billion rail improvement plan to increase capacity, reduce delays and enhance the customer service experience by 2022. Read more about that plan here.
Rail-transit use at the John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports also continued record growth.
In 2019, the AirTrain JFK automated people mover system logged nearly 21 million passengers, and AirTrain Newark recorded more than 11 million passengers.
