Fifteen years after September 11th, a pair of gleaming new transit hubs built for the Port Authority and the MTA stand as symbols of the push to rebuild Lower Manhattan.

But both arrived years later than planned, and with far bigger price tags.

The Port Authority's nearly $4 billion PATH station opened in March.

The agency's own executive director has called it a "symbol of excess," which is a sentiment echoed by critics.

"And had we to do it over again, especially with the dire transportation infrastructure needs that the Port Authority and the region have, I think we could have found a way to do it for a couple of billion dollars, had a fitting building and put that additional money into other transportation infrastructure," said Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye.

"I think we were indulging an architect rather than investing in transportation," said Mitchell Moss, the director of the Rudin Center for Transportation.

The MTA's $1.4 billion Fulton Center opened a block from the Trade Center site in November 2014.

Construction of that station also ran behind schedule and over budget.

Both stations were largely paid for with federal funds.