Plan For Deteriorating Port Authority Bus Terminal Comes With Steep Price Tag
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The deteriorating Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan is in need of a big overhaul or a total replacement, but neither option will be cheap.
The proposals include new ramp connections to the Lincoln Tunnel and additional space so buses would not have to return to New Jersey for parking during layovers, WCBS 880's Paul Murnane reported.
The price tag for the most ambitious plan is $10.5 billion, which is more than 10 times the number discussed by some officials last year.
Ambitious Plan For Port Authority Bus Terminal Comes With Hefty Price Tag
It rings of a familiar scheme to Veronica Vanterpool with the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
"What we're seeing in this region is a trend to inflate the cost of transit projects as an ultimate justification for dropping them," Vanterpool said.
She cautions big price tags can quash enthusiasm.
"We saw that with the ARC tunnel by Gov. Chris Christie; we saw that with the initial plans for bus rapid transit in the Tappan Zee Bridge corridor," Vanterpool said.
But she agrees on the need to plan for demand.
The 64-year-old terminal is the busiest in the country, handling about 220,000 passenger trips daily.
The 42nd Street terminal sees 28,000 people boarding a bus every hour during the evening rush, and the Port Authority wants to see that increase to 42,000.
The agency said the sale of air rights over its Manhattan real estate could help foot the bill, Murnane reported.
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.
