Port Authority Plans To Replace 'Hell On Earth' Bus Terminal

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The Port Authority unveiled plans Thursday to replace its busy but maligned Midtown bus terminal, which leaders acknowledged is in dire need of an overhaul.

"Everyone knows the bus terminal, very few have anything good to say about it," said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton during Thursday's public presentation. Cotton showed a series of news headlines describing the complex as a "monstrosity," "Literally Hell on Earth" and "the single worst place on planet Earth."

But within the next decade, the dreary, cramped 70-year-old building on West 42nd Street could be replaced by a glassy new terminal that would expand passenger space by 40 percent.

The existing bus terminal is the busiest in the world, serving about 260,000 passengers each weekday before the pandemic. The 186-gate building, however, "was not designed and cannot handle today's volumes and modern buses," Cotton said.

More than 30 proposals to replace the terminal have been put forward since 2013. One 2016 proposal, which would have involved seizing and demolishing several blocks of Hell's Kitchen, collapsed amid harsh community opposition.

Under the new plan, terminal operations would partly move to a temporary storage facility just south of the main terminal during construction.

Leaders did not say Thursday how much it would cost, but the agency has previously said an expansion would cost up to $10 billion — a steep price, given the state's pandemic-induced deficit.

The Port Authority said it could raise revenue in part by selling air rights on top of and around the terminal, letting developers build up to four high-rise towers.

Details of Port Authority's revival came on the heels of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's pledge to transform Midtown West by expanding Penn Station and the Javits Convention Center, extending the High Line and building new affordable housing.

More details about the new terminal:

• More than 160 bus gates over five floors; about 2 million total square feet
• Direct connections to 12 subway lines and five bus routes
• 3.5 acres of new green space between Ninth and 10th Avenues, south of the main terminal
• New bus ramps between 10th and 11th avenues, providing direct bus access from the Lincoln Tunnel

Related coverage:

• Midtown West To Be Transformed In Major Redevelopment, Cuomo Vows
• High Line To Extend Into Midtown To Moynihan Hall, Gov Says
• See Inside Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station's Grand Addition
• 'Amazing': Cuomo Celebrates Hell's Kitchen Tow Pound Departure