It may seem as though I’m picking from The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PATH) fruit a bit too much, but once again it provides an excellent example of how to inform and aid customers — riders — during a time in which they were frazzled and angry, not two words you want to hear when discussing customer experience.

On Wednesday, July 29, after vicious thunderstorms ripped through the metropolitan area, signal problems suspended service along the Newark/World Trade Center line at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern, right before rush hour. In an hour that line was partially restored, allowing riders to go from World Trade Center to Journal Square, but there was still no service between Newark and Journal Square, putting out many riders.

PATH incorporated several electronic means by which to convey the message — and more importantly, how to navigate around it — to riders. First, you can check out PATH Alerts at the transportation authority’s Web site. Additionally, at that page you can sign up for alerts to be pushed to a mobile device via text message or email.

If that’s not enough, check out PATH’s official Twitter page, @PATHtweet being its handle. I must say that I was fortunate to not be riding that line home to Jersey City that night, but I was keeping tabs on how PATH handled the fact that myriad riders were frustrated, tired, and just wanting to get home.

On the Twitter feed, @PATHtweet linked to a PDF highlighting all the possible alternate routes one could take to get to Newark. (Basically, take one of the trains to Hoboken, and then take a New Jersey Transit train from Hoboken Terminal to Newark-Penn Station. New Jersey Transit cross-honored all PATH tickets, which was only fair.) In addition to providing a link, @PATHtweet responded to all those pinging it with specific ways to get to their desired destinations.

For those not up on Twitter, and maybe not even open to having alerts pushed to mobile devices, every station had automated announcements giving status updates for the suspended service as well as quick information on how to sidestep it. When I was taking the PATH back to my apartment, at each stop the train conductor would relay the message, too.

Overall, it was a cohesive communication plan put forth in an impossible situation. People want to get home after a long day at work, and having to take a circuitous route — in the rain, no less — is frustrating, especially since mass transit is supposed to take away pesky commuting perils like traffic, for instance.

Was everyone happy? Probably not at that moment.

But, the fact that the people at PATH were both proactive and reactive, answering and educating, will pay dividends in the long run to maintain customer service. People must understand that the folks running the trains don’t control the weather, but what they can control is the response and plan to maintain a respectable level of service despite it. (Full service wasn’t restored until 4 a.m. the next day.)

I’m curious to know how other mass transit systems handle situations like this one — if any of you have similar stories (with happy or sad endings) to share, please drop me a line.