Condition of Manhattan bus terminal ‘unacceptable,’ says new Port Authority chairman
JULY 22, 2014, 7:52 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014, 10:57 PM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Two days before taking the reins of one of most powerful transportation agencies in the country, John Degnan boarded a bus from the New Jersey suburbs to the Port Authority’s midtown Manhattan bus terminal, a cramped and outdated launching pad used by 200,000 commuters each day.
His assessment of the 60-year-old building with broken ceiling panels, cracked tiles and balky air conditioning system: “Unacceptable.”
On a 10-point scale? “A 3 or 4,” he said Tuesday in his first interview since being confirmed as a commissioner for the troubled bi-state agency.
Degnan’s tenure as Governor Christie’s pick to lead the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board of commissioners begins today, and among his first official actions will be to address a controversy that has nothing to do with lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. Under pressure from commuters and several North Jersey legislators, the Port Authority is expected to consider directing $90 million for stopgap repairs of the aging bus terminal, a move that has Degnan’s support.
A more permanent solution could be on the horizon: Degnan said he’d like to see the Port Authority reconsider its decision this year not to include replacement of the bus terminal — a costly and logistically complicated project — in its plans for spending over the next decade.
“When you ask people to come into a building where the tiles are broken and the ceiling panels are falling down and there are supplemental fans to cool them off, it’s kind of insulting,” he said.
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He’s just figuring out that the Port Authority is a pit. Wow this guy is really sharp!!
For anyone who commutes in and out of this crap-hole, it’s really not the facility that irks people. By a very long shot, it’s the crappy dissemination of departure information. For a bus terminal of such importance, it’s simply inexcusable for there not to be screens that display departure information. All too often, gates are changed at sudden notice and the only way to know this is by word being passed around among commuters. I’ve traveled all over the world and similar facilities in even 2nd world countries have better bus terminals than this sorry excuse for a bus terminal in probably the most important city in the world. Even on a good night, a rush hour commute home is standing in a line that snakes on forever, only to find out as you slowly get towards the front that you were in thw wrong line.
So now if the mayor irks the governor will he refuse to send the 163P?
It’s a pit to be sure, but regardless of the condition of the terminal, my main interest is getting out of it. Fix it up, don’t fix it up, I don’t care.
Dig another tunnel or build a 20 story parking garage on top so the buses can sit there until the evening rush and not be subject to the tunnel on the way to pick up passengers.
This is nothing new.
I’m glad I don’t commute.
Too bad they got rid of the girls on the streets surrounding the terminal-they were always entertaining.