The run-down Port Authority Bus Terminal will be turned into a “world class” travel hub under a $10 billion renovation project that launched Thursday.
Calling the aging Midtown bus depot a “hellhole,” Gov. Kathy Hochul ceremoniously broke ground on the massive project on a lot on Dyer Avenue with her New Jersey counterpart, Gov. Phil Murphy.
“After decades of nonstop use this terminal is showing its age,” Hochul said.
She noted several proposals were put forward over the years to revamp the eyesore on West 41st Street between Eight and Ninth Avenues, including in 2007, 2013 and 2019.
But “none of these proposals managed to do what collectively we are able to do today,” Hochul said, promising the new terminal — which will be located in the same place and take approximately seven years to complete — will be “world class.”
Renderings shared by the governor’s office depict a gleaming, modern building, that’s expected to have open spaces and storefronts at the street level.
“This new terminal is going to be a game changer for New Jersey, for New York, and for visitors from across the entire globe, and it will help ensure that we preserve our region’s proud reputation as the gateway to America.” Murphy said.
The renovated hub, Murphy said, will be able to handle 1,000 busses per hour, a surge from the 600 it can process now.
Around 205,000 passengers go through the current terminal every weekday on average according to the Port Authority.
The total project is expected to run around $10 billion. The feds are pitching in, having committed to giving the Port Authority a $2 billion loan for the project earlier this year.
The site Hochul and Murphy broke ground on will serve as a staging area for busses during the construction of the new terminal.
A temporary terminal and new ramps leading into the new facility are expected to be constructed by 2028. The new facility is projected to open in 2032.
“Breaking ground on the Dyer Avenue deck-overs is more than the start of construction — it’s the beginning of a transformative investment in sustainable infrastructure, improved air quality, and expanded public space,” Mayor Eric Adams, who was absent from the event, wrote in a statement.
“The new Midtown Bus Terminal will not only modernize a vital commuter hub, but will also reconnect our neighborhoods, support thousands of good-paying jobs, and create a greener, more accessible West Side for generations to come,” he said.
Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton also called the groundbreaking for the first stage of the project “momentous.”
The event followed months of Hochul and Murphy trading barbs, particularly as the Garden State governor continues to gripe about commuters from his state having to pay the much-derided congestion pricing toll to enter part of Manhattan.
Murphy and Hochul have also feuded over New Jersey’s withdrawal from the Waterfront Commission, a joint venture set up in the 1950s to fight the mob.
“You don’t hear this a lot with respect to New York and New Jersey but we both like each other” Hochul said Thursday — noting that she and Murphy were going to talk about their issues like their Irish ancestors did – over a beer.
