Tag: Port Authority Bus Terminal

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Changes at Port Authority Bus Terminal easing gridlock?

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Changes at Port Authority Bus Terminal easing gridlock?

Editors Note : Lots of construction but no noticeable improvements on any of the busses we take , file this article under , more tales from the land of make believe  , whats your experience ?NOVEMBER 12, 2014    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014, 12:49 AM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORDFor months this summer, the Port Authority Bus Terminal was so crowded and NJ Transit Bus 163 to Paramus often ran so late that Robert Celikbas rarely made it home in time to put his baby to bed.“It was sad. I never saw my daughter,” said Celikbas, 34, an accountant in Manhattan who started looking for jobs in New Jersey to avoid commuting through the terminal.

In the last few weeks, though, something has changed. Lines inside the terminal became shorter. The 163 started leaving on time. And Celikbas now spends an hour and a half at home every night with his 7-month-old daughter.

“I don’t know how they did it,” he said. “But this is definitely better.”

After years of growing congestion — and frustration — at the midtown Manhattan bus station, gridlock reached crisis proportions this summer. Buses were late, lines of commuters snaked around the building, and commuters became enraged.

Officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 42nd streets, and NJ Transit, which operates 70 percent of the buses using the terminal, promised immediate changes. A new order started on Sept. 15 that included adding personnel to manage traffic and to redirect bus drivers as needed. Its focus: Keep those buses rolling.

“As long as we keep buses moving through the building, that’s the key to the whole thing,” said Mike Kilcoyne, deputy general manager of bus operations for NJ Transit.

The results, while preliminary, have been dramatic. The number of buses passing though the terminal every weekday evening is up 23 percent, said Cedrick Fulton, director of tunnels, bridges and terminals for the Port Authority.

Customer complaints in the last two weeks of September, just after the new system started, were 50 percent lower than for the comparable period a year earlier, said Nancy Snyder, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/changes-at-port-authority-bus-terminal-easing-gridlock-1.1131532

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Port Authority Bus Terminal, beset by delays and decrepitude, set for $260M overhaul

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Port Authority Bus Terminal, beset by delays and decrepitude, set for $260M overhaul


AUGUST 2, 2014, 11:28 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 2014, 10:32 AM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Richard Simon keeps a tally of every injustice inflicted upon him by the Port Authority Bus Terminal. At 5:02 p.m., Bus 77 left for Toms River. Simon recorded its departure on a small notepad using a scratchy blue pen.

Further insults occurred at 5:03, when buses departed for Freehold and Morristown and another for Toms River, leaving Simon behind on the platform waiting for his own bus, the 196, scheduled to depart at 5 p.m. for West Milford. After a lull, four buses left at 5:11, which Simon found especially galling.

“It just kills me,” said Simon, 66, shaking with anger. “They’re charging us top-dollar fares and giving us Third World service.”

Simon isn’t the only person who’s angry. Conditions at the Port Authority Bus Terminal are worse than ever, said Mark Schaff, the man in charge of the facility. Long lines are growing longer. Critical pathways for buses and pedestrians are clogged, deteriorated and dangerous. The heating and cooling systems are inadequate, the bathrooms are horrors, and the ceiling leaks rain and melted snow onto commuters’ heads.

After decades of deferred overhauls, however, a rare alignment of commuter outrage and shifting politics may force the building’s owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to make repairs. The agency plans to spend up to $260 million on maintenance in the coming years, a small down payment on what commuters, some elected officials and the agency’s leaders agree is truly needed: an all-new terminal that could cost more than $1 billion.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/port-authority-bus-terminal-beset-by-delays-and-decrepitude-set-for-260m-overhaul-1.1061356#sthash.KaEPhc74.dpuf

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Condition of Manhattan bus terminal ‘unacceptable,’ says new Port Authority chairman

VenessaatPA_theridgewoodblog.net_

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.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/condition-of-manhattan-bus-terminal-unacceptable-says-new-port-authority-chairman-1.1055464#sthash.G1BmJg1q.dpuf