New passenger cars are hitting the tracks of the PATH rail system for the first time in more than 20 years.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is scheduled to send off the first train with the new equipment following a ceremony Friday afternoon in Jersey City.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is spending about $500 million to replace all 340 PATH cars by 2011.

The replacements are part of a $3 billion overhaul of the PATH system, which carries about 236,000 commuters a day between Manhattan and northern New Jersey under the Hudson River.

The improvements represent the largest overhaul of the 102-year-old system since the Port Authority acquired it from the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad in 1962.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.