NEW YORK, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is suing the owner of the World Trade Center (WTC) site for intruding on the footprints of the fallen WTC towers with the construction of a train station, a coalition member said Friday.

    A lawsuit seeking to stop the construction of the permanent station for the Port Authority Trans-Hudson service, commonly known as PATH trains was filed in US District Court in Manhattan on Thursday.

    The Coalition of 9/11 Families Inc. brought the action against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the 16-acre site where the trade center stood, and federal transit agencies that are funding the building of the PATH station.

    Construction on the transportation hub, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, began on Sept. 12. Part of the five-level station would build over part of the footprint to the south tower, the lawsuit said.

    While the families always knew that about half of the south tower would be covered by the PATH development, the latest plans propose extra train tracks that were never there before Sept. 11, said Anthony Gardner, a member of the coalition who filed suit. The changes would cover a greater part of the south tower and encroach upon the north tower footprint, he said.

    "They've never justified the need for this extra platform. The priority is the commercial and then the history is secondary," he added.

    The lawsuit said the proposed PATH terminal, which would connect several downtown subway lines with the PATH trains to New Jersey at the trade center site, should be rejected because there are feasible alternatives that would not intrude on a historic site.

    Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Steve Coleman said Friday the agency had not been served with the lawsuit and does not typically comment on lawsuits against it. Enditem