The
Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially
Port Authority when referred to as a building) is the main
gateway for interstate busesA bus terminus is a designated place where a bus or coach starts or ends its scheduled route. The terminus is the designated place that a timetable is timed from. Termini can be located at bus stations, interchanges, bus garages or simple bus stops. Termini can both start and stop at the same...
into
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is operated by the
Port Authority of New York and New JerseyThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...
.
The bus terminal is a large building located in Midtown, one block west from
Times SquareTimes Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, between 8th and 9th Avenues and 40th and
42nd Street42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
at 625 8th Avenue. It serves as a terminus and departure point for both commuter bus routes as well as for long-distance intercity routes. During
rush hourA rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
, the terminal's two-mile (3 km) bus lane brings buses from
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
directly into the building through the
Lincoln TunnelThe Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
, avoiding traffic delays in the tunnel and on city streets (but not necessarily on the ramps into the terminal). Direct underground passageways connect the terminal with the
New York City SubwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
trains.
The terminal is the biggest bus station in the United States and the busiest in the world by volume of traffic. It serves 7,200 buses and about 200,000 people on an average weekday.
History
The Port Authority Bus Terminal began operation on December 15, 1950 for passengers, originally occupying only the block between 40th and 41st Streets. The terminal was intended as a solution for an array of various terminals spread throughout Midtown Manhattan. The goal was to centralize the flow of buses and create a user-friendly building.
The building has seen expansions and revitalizations over the years, most notably the addition of the North Wing in 1979. While this expansion increased capacity by 50%, the accompanying renovation replaced the art deco styling of the original terminal with a "modern" steel-and-glass look of the sort fashionable during the late 1970s and early 1980s for institutional buildings.
During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the area in and around the Port Authority Terminal was once considered dangerous even by the standards of pre-
gentrifiedGentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
Times Square, especially after dark, but this is no longer the case. During 1997, the terminal was the subject of a study, co-ordinated by Prof. Marcus Felson of Rutgers University, which identified strategic changes to the design with a view to reducing crime. This is one of the world's leading examples of successful situational crime prevention efforts.
A statue of
Jackie GleasonJackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
in the guise of one of his most famous characters (and New York's most famous bus driver), Ralph Kramden, stands in front of the main entrance to the original South Wing on Eighth Avenue. The plaque on the base of the statue reads, "Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden - Bus Driver - Raccoon Lodge Treasurer - Dreamer - Presented by the People of
TV LandTV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
."
An overbuild of the Port Authority Bus Terminal was first proposed in 1999. A 35-story building known as 7 Times Square was to be constructed over the north wing and a driving range was to be constructed over the south wing. However, the project was put on hold due to a decline in the economy following the dot com bust. On November 30, 2007, the Port Authority announced that a joint venture of the real estate investment trust Vornado and the Ruben Companies would lease the air rights over the terminal's north wing and construct a 40-story office tower designed by
Pritzker PrizeThe Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
-winning architect
Richard RogersRichard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside CH Kt FRIBA FCSD is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs....
with 1300000 square feet (120,774 m²) of commercial space. The agreement also included the addition of 60000 square feet (5,574.2 m²) of new retail space in the bus terminal, as well as 18 additional gates, which would accommodate 70 additional buses, carrying up to 3,000 passengers per hour. New escalators would be installed to help move passengers more quickly between the gate area and the ground floor. Construction was expected to begin in 2009 or 2010 and take four years to complete. However the economy soured once again, and the agreement expired in August, 2009. In May 2010, Vornado was given an extension on the deadline to August 2011.
On November 14, 2008,
ReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
reported that
VirtualtouristVirtualTourist is a free, travel-oriented community website featuring user-contributed travel guides for locations worldwide. VirtualTourist is one of a number of travel websites on the Web, which include websites like Tripadvisor and Cruise Critic...
listed the PABT as one of the "World's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings and Monuments."
The current Commanding Officer is Insp. Michael S. Guarnieri.
Bus companies
The following bus companies serve the terminal, many via the
Lincoln TunnelThe Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
:
- Academy Bus
Academy Bus Lines is a bus company in New Jersey providing local bus service in northern New Jersey, line run service to/from New York City from points in central New Jersey, and contract and charter service in the northeastern United States from Boston to Northern Virginia.-Under contract to NJ...
- Adirondack Trailways
- Bieber Tourways
- Bolt Bus
- Bonanza Bus Lines
- Capitol Trailways
- Community Coach
Community Coach is a bus operator in northern New Jersey owned by Coach USA, operating fixed route and charter service.-Directly controlled:Community Coach, as Community Transit Lines, operates a single line run from New York to Morristown, the #77 line, via Main Street in Orange, Route 10, and...
- DeCamp Bus Lines
DeCamp Bus Lines is a line-run operator serving Essex County, New Jersey with line run and charter service to and from Manhattan. Because there are no fixed stops other than termini, buses can be hailed to board; riders can request a stop to exit....
- Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...
- Lakeland Bus Lines
Lakeland Bus Lines, Inc is a privately operated charter/commuter bus operation in Dover, New Jersey. Lakeland operates commuter routes from Morris, Sussex, and Somerset Counties to New York City.-Routes:...
- Leisure Lines
- Martz Group
- NJ Transit
New Jersey Transit Bus Operations is the bus division of New Jersey Transit, providing bus service throughout New Jersey along with service along one light rail line, with many routes going to New York City and Philadelphia.-History:...
- Olympia Trails
Olympia Trails, also doing business under the brands Orange Newark Elizabeth Bus for local bus service in Essex and Union counties in New Jersey, Red & Tan in Hudson County for operations in Hudson County, New Jersey, and Megabus Northeast, LLC for the Megabus service that it directly operates,...
- Peter Pan Bus Lines
Peter Pan Bus Lines is a long-distance bus carrier headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts. It operates in the northeastern United States. Over four million passengers per year travel on Peter Pan's bus routes....
- Red & Tan in Hudson County
- Rockland Coaches
- Short Line Bus
- Suburban Trails
Coach USA Suburban Transit , a bus operator in central New Jersey providing line run service from Middlesex County to New York City and local bus service along the Lincoln Highway and Route 130 in Middlesex County.-Routes:-External links:**...
- Susquehanna Trailways
- Trans-Bridge Lines
Trans-Bridge Lines is a line-run operator servicing the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania and the southwestern Skylands Region of New Jersey with line run service between New York City and the Lehigh Valley, via the I-78 corridor daily, and charter and casino service in the same region...
- Trans-Hudson Express
External links