NEW YORK (AP) – New York City’s main bus station, long ridiculed for leaky ceilings, dirty bathrooms and frequent flight delays, is in need of a major overhaul.
The port authorities of New York and New Jersey on Thursday unveiled a proposal to rebuild and expand the controversial bus station in Manhattan.
“Everyone knows the bus station. Very few have anything good to say about it, ”says Rick Cotton, director of the Port Authority. “It is a long time ago that this building is being replaced.”
The new station would be built on top of the existing one, with sleek glass-walled entrances and additional infrastructure to accommodate more buses. Ramps spanning several blocks would be relocated and a storage building built to keep empty buses off the street.
Construction could start in 2024, be ready by 2031, and cost as much as $ 10 billion, the Port Authority said. About $ 3 billion would come from the sales rights to build four commercial buildings in the area, including one on top of the terminal. It would also require local and federal funding.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950 on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets near Times Square.
A statue of Ralph Kramden, the fictional bus driver from “The Honeymooners”, stands outside the main entrance. It also provided a fitting backdrop for ‘Midnight Cowboy’, the 1969 film that lit up New York’s seedy underworld.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the terminal handled more than 250,000 passenger journeys on weekdays, many from New Jersey. A study commissioned by the Port Authority predicted that that number would increase to more than 330,000 by 2040.
Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning think tank, called the new plan “a creative approach to a complicated problem.”
“Repairing the Port Authority Bus Terminal for the 260,000 people who rely on it every weekday is one of the highest infrastructure priorities for our region,” he said. “The prosperity of our tri-country area will depend on our ability to provide access across the region and secure jobs.”
For years officials have debated replacing or overhauling the bus station, the busiest in the country. But political bickering between lawmakers and port authority officials of both states stalled the project, while other major infrastructure projects advanced, including a new World Trade Center transit hub and multi-billion dollar makeovers of LaGuardia, JFK and Newark Liberty airports. .
The bus station was not included in the Port Authority’s 10-year capital plan in 2014, provoking the ire of commuters and lawmakers in New Jersey.
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Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.