Port Authority Approves Plan For New NYC Bus Terminal
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has moved forward with a plan to replace its aging bus terminal in New York City.
Board members approved a plan Thursday that will include an international design competition for a new terminal.
The current terminal at Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street is over 50 years old and handles more than 200,000 people per day. It's considered outdated and ill-suited for projected increases in traffic in the coming years.
"We expect ridership to double by 2040 at the bus terminal, from 120,000 people each way to 240,000," New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney said earlier this month. "It's not going to work in the location it's at."
Board members last month were sharply divided on what direction the project should take, but a consensus was reached since then on several fronts.
The plan approved Thursday would also hire a consultant to look at ridership projections and consider how the new terminal would fit in with other transit projects.
But some commuters at the terminal on Thursday weren't so sure the plan is a good one, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
"I think that it needs to be updated but I can't imagine how they would replace it without disrupting all the commuters," Scott Norman said.
The last major bus terminal upgrade was in 1979 – an era when the terminal and the area around it comprised a seedy district known for crime, prostitution and vagrancy.
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