Ground Zero rail station reopens

The station is a temporary but quite glamorous structure

A commuter railway station at Ground Zero in New York has re-opened, more than two years since it shut down after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The first train arrived in the station on Sunday carrying dignitaries and relatives of victims of the attacks.

Commuters can now arrive from New Jersey on Manhattan at the place where the twin towers once stood.

New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, who was on the train, described the event as a "resumption of normalcy".

'Great honour'

Symbolically the train was the same one which was the last to be shunted away from the old station on the day of the attacks.

We're proud and we're pleased to bring back to the people of this region something that was taken from us on 11 September Anthony Coscia Port authority chairman

Thelma Stuart, widow of a police officer who evacuated the train before being killed in the twin towers, arrived in the first car with her three-year-old daughter.

"It's a great honour," she said.

Governor McGreevey was joined by New York city mayor Michael Bloomberg and the two New Jersey senators, Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg in the second car of the train.

New York Governor George Pataki had also planned to attend, but was forced to cancel because of illness.

Anthony Coscia, chairman of the port authority spoke at a ceremony to welcome the train.

"We're proud and we're pleased to bring back to the people of this region something that was taken from us on 11 September," he said.

First project

The train pulled in there at 0910 that morning full of passengers and rescued other people from the platform right underneath the burning buildings.

The rebuilt 'ground zero' will become a transport hub

The terminal is the first construction project to be finished at the World Trade Center site since the attacks.

Our correspondent says the area is now a hive of rebuilding activity.

The station is still a temporary structure though, she adds, if a rather glamorous one of luminous grey steel columns, corrugated flooring and open sides made of vinyl screen panels.

A new hub of commuter trains and subway stations is to be built as part of the project to redevelop the World Trade Center site.

Around 250,000 people currently travel daily on the Path network which uses the line.