Still not buying this up beat assessment on the Port Authority Bus Terminal
Crisis helped to improve Port Authority bus terminal
November 16, 2014, 10:54 PM Last updated: Sunday, November 16, 2014, 10:57 PM
By CHRISTOPHER MAAG
This summer, thousands of New Jersey commuters who use the Port Authority Bus Terminal felt trapped, helpless and doomed. Delays at the terminal were growing to crisis proportions, and nobody at the Port Authority seemed to care. In fact, the agency’s leaders had announced in February that the cramped, deteriorating bus terminal wouldn’t receive an overhaul for at least another decade.
Then came Sept. 15. Officials at the Port Authority, which owns the building, and NJ Transit, which operates most buses using the terminal, unveiled an intensive campaign to slice through the bureaucratic gridlock and get buses moving. The plan worked. Long lines of commuters and buses were largely curtailed.
The success shows how a handful of people can make big change by capitalizing on crisis, and viewing an intractable problem from the perspective of a changed political landscape. It’s a story of people working in the bowels of big bureaucracies who know exactly how to fix big problems, but who are hamstrung until their bosses finally come around.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/crisis-helped-to-improve-port-authority-bus-terminal-1.1134880
It boiled down to putting some folks on the ground who actually care, and giving them the authority to do things like swap out routes etc just to keep people moving.
The PA is still one of my least favorite places on earth, narrowly edging out Penn Station.
It’s going to get worse. This is what happens when you don’t invest in your infrastructure’s future.
I have a choice of train or bus for my daily commute. The train is more expensive, but that extra cost is worth it and therefore, I take the train. Apart from 2-3 times a year, the trains are bang on time, and I can make late-evening plans knowing that I will be home by a certain time. As for the bus, it’s actually a very pleasant ride. The issue is getting ON that ride. Going in, in the morning, is great. The issue is coming home. The Port Authority is an absolute clusterfuck of confusing, and changing, lines and gates. Timetables are suggestions, and you spend an inordinate amount of time, creeping forward in your line, trying to get to your eventual bus. You have no real sense of the time you will arrive home. Like I said, I pay extra for the train.
Hey PJ you look one of the men in black in that photo