Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as Port Authority and in initials as PABT ) is the main gateway for interstate buses to Manhattan in New York City. Owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The bus terminal is located in Midtown at 625 Eighth Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street, one block east of the Lincoln Tunnel and one block west of Times Square. It is one of three bus terminals operated by PANYNJ, the other being the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in Upper Manhattan and the Journal Square Transportation Center in Jersey City.
PABT serves as a terminal and departure point for commuter routes, as well as for long-haul routes between cities, and is a major transit point for New Jerseyans. The terminal is the largest in the United States and the busiest in the world with traffic volume, serving about 8,000 buses and 225,000 people on average business days and over 65 million people per year. It has 223 departure gates and 1,250 car parks, as well as commercial and retail space. In 2011, there were more than 2,263 million bus departures from the terminal.
PABT, opened in 1950 between 8th and 9th Avenue and 40th and 41st Streets, was built to consolidate the various private terminals scattered in Midtown Manhattan. The second wing extending into 42nd Street was added in 1979. Since then, the terminal has reached the peak hours capacity, causing congestion and overflowing on local roads. Because it is not possible to park in transit, buses are required to use the road or many places, or back through the empty tunnel. PANYNJ has failed in its efforts to expand its passenger facilities through public private partnerships and in 2011, it delayed the construction of bus depot annotations, citing budgetary constraints. In June 2013, the commission commissioned an 18-month study that will consider reconfiguration, expansion and replacement options.
Video Port Authority Bus Terminal
History
Site
Before the PABT was built, there were several terminals scattered throughout Midtown Manhattan, some of which were part of the hotel. Project Publishing The Federal Writers Project 1940 New York: A Guide to the Empire State lists All American Bus Depot at West 42nd, Consolidated Bus Terminal at West 41st, and Hotel Astor Bus Terminal at West 45th. The Dixie Bus Center on 42nd Street, located on the ground floor of the hotel of the same name, opened in 1930 and operated until 1959. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad has a ferry-ride train service to Communipaw's Terminal in Jersey City that runs from an elegant bus terminal with a revolving bus platform in the Chanin Building at 42nd and Lexington. Greyhound Lines has its own facility adjacent to Pennsylvania Station and did not move to PABT until 1963, at which time all the long-distance bus services to the city were consolidated at the terminal.
The Lincoln Tunnel from Manhattan to New Jersey was opened in 1937. Within a year and a half of the tunnel opening, five companies operate 600 interstate bus journeys through tunnels each day. The opposing city let the bus pass through Midtown Manhattan because the bus caused congestion. The large bus terminal near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel was first mandated in December 1939, after the city announced that it would ban the commuter bus from driving into the crowded section of Midtown. The ban should come into force in January 1941. In July 1940, at the request of New York City mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, the Port Authority began a survey of the causes and effects of inter-city bus and commuter traffic in Manhattan.. In December, Times Square Terminal Inc. filed an application to build and operate a commuter bus terminal from 41 to 42 Roads between 8 and 9 Roads. A $ 4 million terminal can be built in nine months. Manhattan Borough President Stanley M. Isaacs proposed the construction of a short $ 600,000 tube between the Lincoln Tunnel and the new terminal. The city approved the construction of a new terminal and connecting the tunnel in January 1941. Meanwhile, New York Supreme Court Judge John E. McGeehan blocked the proposed La Guardia bus ban on the grounds that it made no sense.
Plans for bus terminals were postponed due to World War II, which used resources devoted to most projects that were not directly involved in the war effort. In June 1944, the New York state government allocated $ 180,000 to the Port Authority to study the feasibility of building a bus terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Early next year, plans for the mid-Manhattan bus terminal are presented to different bus companies. While most major bus lines approve the plan, Greyhound is the only major bus company against the construction of new terminals, as it is already planning to expand its current terminal near Penn Station.
The New York City Council of Representatives approved the construction of a new terminal in January 1947. It will be built one block south of the canceled Times Square Terminal Inc. site, in blocks bordered by 40th and 41st Streets and 8th and 9th Avenues. Plans for structural design were substantially revised in March 1948, when the Port Authority added 500-spot parking spaces to cars on the terminal roof, to be accessed through a series of ramps. The last industry occupants on the terminal's future site moved the following month, and the Port Authority held the groundbreaking ceremony for the terminal in January 1949.
Original construction and addition
The original Mid-Manhattan Bus Station (now PABT's South Wing), built in International Style, was opened on December 15, 1950, as a generic "Port Authority bus" terminal. The addition of three vertical parking levels capable of accommodating 1,000 cars was completed in 1963. In 2007, the South Wing underwent a seismic retrofit in a $ 52 million building code fulfillment project to strengthen and stabilize it against earthquakes.
Plans to expand the bus terminal to 42nd Street were floated since 1965. The North Wing opened in 1979. This expansion increased capacity by 50 percent and created a new faadade consisting of 27 X-shaped steel rods. Based on this façade design, Virtualtourist enrolled PABT in 2008 as one of the "10 Largest Buildings and Monuments in the World".
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, areas within and around the PABT were deemed dangerous by police, tourists and passengers due to high crime, prostitution, homeless behavior, and inadequate maintenance and enforcement in buildings and the Times Square is nearby, especially after dark, but this is no longer the case. During 1997, the terminal became the subject of research, co-ordinated by Professor Marcus Felson of Rutgers University, who identified strategic changes in building design and area control with a view to reducing crime and other issues.
Expansion proposal
Air rights
PANYNJ has been trying to expand the terminal through public-private partnerships by leasing air rights over the North Wing.
In 1999, a 35-story building, known as 7 Times Square, was proposed to be built on the North Wing and a golf driving range will be built on the South Wing. However, the project was suspended in 2001 due to the economic downturn after the dot com bust.
Between 2000 and 2011, PANYNJ worked with Vornado Realty Trust, which has partnered with Lawrence Ruben Company. In November 2007, PANYNJ announced a terms of agreement that will receive nearly $ 500 million in lease agreements for new office towers which will also provide funding for additional terminal facilities. It will include 1,300,000 square feet (120,000m 2 ) of commercial space in new office towers, which use the address of vanity 20 Times Square, the addition of 60,000 square feet (5,600m) of soup> 2 ) of new retail space at the bus terminal, as well as 18 additional departure gates, accommodating 70 additional buses carrying up to 3,000 passengers per hour. A new escalator will be installed to help move passengers faster between the gate area and the ground floor. Construction is expected to begin in 2009 or 2010 and takes four years to complete. After an architectural competition, PANYNJ selected the design by Pritzker Prize architect Richard Rogers of Rogers Stirk Harbor Partners for a 45-story office tower with an overall height of 855 feet (261 m). The agreement expired in August 2009, and in May 2010, Vornado was granted retroactives on a time limit until August 2011. In July 2011, Vornado announced that it had found a new partner to finance part of the tower, but in November 2011, pulled out of the project.
In June 2014, PANYNJ received higher prices than anticipated for the sale of nearby properties, $ 115 million versus $ 100 million. The value of air rights over the terminals will be higher than previously assessed, thanks to an increase in property values ​​in the area around the terminal and an indication of increased air rights over the terminals. The agency has the intention to release a proposal request for air rights development in 2014-2015.
West Side bus depots
The Port Authority allows for limited transit of the bus, requiring companies to make other arrangements during off-peak hours and between trips. Plenty of parks on the local streets or parking spots during the day while others travel back and forth without passengers through the Lincoln Tunnel to use the facilities in New Jersey. The stopover parking on city streets is arranged by NYDOT, which assigns locations throughout the city. In the vicinity of PABT, it is concentrated on the side of the road between 9th and 12th Street from 30th Street to 60th Street.
Various research and news reports conclude that there is a need for a new bus depot in Midtown. In a joint study by New York City and PANYNJ, a preferred location for bus depots was located at Galvin Plaza located at 39 to 40 Roads between 10 and 11 Roads. However, this proposed location for the commuter bus will not have the capacity for charter buses and tour buses.
PANYNJ announced a substantial increase in tolls on its crossing between New York and New Jersey in August 2011, citing as one of the reasons they built a new $ 800 million bus garage connected to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which would serve as a traffic remitter to The Lincoln Tunnel and the streets of downtown Manhattan save two-thirds of the empty bus trips that must make two extra trips through the tunnel every day. "Initially included in the PANYNJ 2007-2016 Capital Plan, the garage's construction was canceled by the agency in October 2011 after citing budgetary constraints due to the arrangement in which the toll hikes will be gradually applied.
In April 2012, the director of PANYNJ reported that a proposal had been made by developer Larry Silverstein, who had a memorandum of understanding to develop the property on 39th Street near the ramps between tunnels and terminals, to build a bus garage with a residential tower above it. This package is not big enough to accommodate the bus ramp and will require the use of an elevator, which seems to be a new type of application for bus storage. It has not grown any further.
In 2014, PANYNJ made an application for a $ 230 million grant to the Federal Transit Administration for garage development.
Proposal replacement of Bus Terminal
Midtown Bus Master Packages
In June 2013, PANYNJ commissioned an 18-month study that will consider reconfiguration, expansion, and replacement options for the PABT and the new bus staging and storage facilities at Manhattan's West Side. The $ 5.5 million contract awarded to Kohn Pedersen Fox and Parsons Brinkerhoff will see potential public-private financing, including air rights sales and cost sharing with private bus operators.
Bus Replacement Competition
In 2016, the Port Authority invited a number of development teams to propose ideas for the replacement of existing bus terminals.
Maps Port Authority Bus Terminal
Art and advertising
The Commuters , a statue of three weary bus passengers and a clock rescued from the original terminal by George Segal, was unveiled at the main ticket area in 1982. 42nd Street Ballroom rolling statue by George Rhoads on the main floor of the North Wing, installed in 1983. A Jackie Gleason statue under the guise of one of the most famous characters, bus driver Ralph Kramden, stands in front of the main entrance to the original South Wing. The plaque reads, "Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden - Bus Driver - Raccoon Lodge Treasurer - Dreamer - Spoken by People from the Land of TV".
Triple Bridge Gateway is an art lighting installation completed in 2009 by Leni Schwendinger Light Projects under a ramp that connects tunnels and terminals that are part of the 9th Avenue entrance transformation of the South Wing.
In July 2011, PABT became home to the world's largest mediamesh, stainless steel fabrics embedded with LED light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for various types of media, art, and advertising imagery. The LED façade image covers 6,000 square feet wrapping around the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue.
Configuration
Information and tickets
For years there was no timetable board showing departure at the PABT; passengers are asked to ask at the information counter or ticket booth for schedules and departure gates. By 2015 both Port Authority and NJ Transit install a schedule list of upcoming scheduled departures, although the buses are not tracked so delays are not communicated through this method.
Tickets can be purchased on the main floor (ground floor) of the South Wing in the main ticket plaza; Greyhound, Trailways and Short Line have an additional ticket counter at the terminal.
New Jersey Transit (NJT) manages customer service counters at the terminal on the main level of the south wing (open working days). NJT has a ticket vending machine (TVM) throughout the terminal. Effective in 2009, passengers boarding the NJT bus are required to purchase tickets before boarding. In April 2012, NJT begins to re-equip machines that will make changes for those who pay cash on bills rather than $ 1 coins. NJT also accepts an unannounced payment system (including since October 2011 Google Wallet) on TVM and ticket window.
Gates
There are 223 departure gates from the design of a teeth saw or pull-through island platforms in PABT. At the Subway Level, or lower level of the two wings, Gates 1-85 is mostly used for long-haul trips and jitney, and overnight hours (1 am to 6 am) for the commuter line. From 6 am to 1 am, during normal operating hours, Gates 200-425, are numbered to show various boarding areas (100, 200, 300, etc.) Inside the complex are accessible from Level 2 and serve short-distance commuter lines. Most NJ Transit routes and New Jersey private carrier commuter routes are at 200, 300, and 400 levels.
Retail and entertainment
Like other transit hubs, PABT has undergone a series of renovations to create a mall-like space to promote retail space, food, entertainment and services. There are many franchise stores - such as Heartland Brewery, Au Bon Pain, Jamba Juice, Starbucks, Hudson News, Duane Reade, GNC, Post Office of the United States Postal Service, as well as various restaurants and bars throughout the terminal. Frames, bowling (long known as Leisure Time Bowling) occupies a large space on the 2nd floor.
Company
The Port Authority is served by the following lines:
Connect transportation
The underground line directly connects the terminal with 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , & lt; 7 & gt; , A , C , E , N , Q , R , W , and S train in New York City Subway at Times Square - 42nd Street/42nd Street - Terminal Authority Bus Terminal station.
The New York City Transit Manhattan bus, operated by the New York City Bus, stops right outside the terminal.
In the past decade, many jitney routes serve the Hudson and Passaic areas of northern New Jersey to pick up passengers inside the bus terminal or on the road outside the terminal. Dollar vans are operated by Spanish Transport to Paterson and Community Lines, jitneys to Journal Square using platforms at the lower levels. Routes to Bergenline Avenue/GWB Plaza, and Boulevard East depart from 42nd Street outside the North Wing bus terminal.
In 2011, a controversy arose when Megabus, a long-haul carrier using a double-decker bus, with permission from the New York City Department of Transport, began using the streets and sidewalks in the terminal. Director of PANYNJ, citing safety, as well as a long-distance company that pays rent to use the terminal, citing unfair competitive advantage, opposes permission to permit the use of 41st Street company directly under the connection between the two wings of the Port Authority. Despite these concerns and complaints, Megabus was initially allowed to stay. However, the license was withdrawn later that year. Megabus now mostly uses roadside stops near the Jacob Javits Convention Center (for pickup) and Penn Station (for drop-offs), except for a number of routes using PABT.
Capacity and overflow
PABT is the gateway for most of the bus and jitney traffic entering Manhattan with over 190,000 passengers with 6,000 bus trips made through Lincoln Tunnels and terminals every day. The Lincoln Tunnel Approach and Helix (NJ 495) in Hudson County, New Jersey passing the cuts and descending to Hudson Palisades to the Lincoln Tunnel at the other end are PABT. Beginning in 1964, research was undertaken to address the feasibility of the exclusive bus lanes (XBL) during peak periods of working mornings. XBL, first implemented in 1970, serves bus traffic heading east from 6 am to 10 am. This line is fed by the New Jersey Turnpike at Exits 16E and 17 and New Jersey Route 3. Helices, tunnels and terminals are owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state agency that also implements the left-express express bus 2.5 miles (4.02 km) on three lanes going west. XBL serves over 1,800 buses and 65,000 bus passengers on weekday mornings and is a major component of the morning "in" transition across the Hudson River. Over 100 bus operators use the Exclusive Bus Lane. In 2013, New Jersey Transit operates fifty-seven interstate bus routes through the Lincoln Tunnel, as well as a number of regional and long-distance companies.
Although XBL into the tunnel, there is often a long delay due to congestion caused by the limited capacity of bus lanes to hoard passengers at the bus terminal, which has reached its capacity. leading to re-routing and abundance in local streets In December 2011, the New Jersey Assembly passed a resolution calling on PANYNJ to address congestion issues. Congestion contributes to the timely decline in bus performance, which is 92 percent in 2012 and 85 percent in the first quarter of 2014. Thomas Duane, representing the 29th New York Senate District covering the area around PABT, is also called to reduce congestion in the neighborhood. A regional transport support consortium, the Tri-Country Transport Campaign, has proposed a reconfiguration and extension of the terminal, the western XBL PM, another Manhattan bus stop, and a new bus storage depot. A proposed bus garage in Midtown, so day-shifting buses can avoid unnecessary travel through tunnels without passengers, canceled by agents in October 2011. In May 2012, NJDOT commissioners suggested that some NJ Transit routes may originate/expire at other Manhattan locations, especially the East Side; arrangements requiring approval from the NYC Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) to use bus stops.
Note
References
External links
- Port Authority's Terminal Bus Website
- Port Authority Bus Terminal History
- Competition for Bus Terminal Replacement
- Guide to the Port Authority's Bus Terminal
- Bus, Lincoln Tunnel, and Port Authority Bus Terminal
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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