We deserve a new Midtown Bus Terminal worthy of the people of NJ, NY

On the day before it opened to commuters, The New York Times described the new Port Authority Bus Terminal “as revolutionary as it is large.” In the days and months following its Dec. 15, 1950 operational opening, public accolades for the largest-of-its-kind-in-the-world facility flooded the new terminal just as water would decades later through aging ceiling tiles into plastic buckets scattered across concourses.

The Midtown Bus Terminal, as it is now called, has mirrored the ups and downs of our region — from the suburban boom times of the 1950s through the social and economic uncertainties of the late-1960s, 1970s and 1980s, to the gradual transformation of the neighborhoods surrounding the massive structure at the end of the last century through to today.

Over nearly three-quarters of a century, our region has changed. The needs of commuters have changed. The needs of the communities surrounding the Midtown Bus Terminal have changed. What hasn’t changed has been the bus terminal.

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Not anymore.

A new Midtown Bus Terminal begins

Earlier this month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a significant advancement in the plans to build a new, 21st century, world-class Midtown Bus Terminal designed by two world-renowned architects: the international firm Foster + Partners and the U.S.-based multi-disciplinary design firm A. Epstein and Sons International Inc.

On Feb. 1, the Federal Transit Administration published the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, or DEIS for the proposed replacement of the existing 73-year-old functionally obsolete terminal, triggering a 45-day period for public comments and public hearings, and the Port Authority released revised project plans in response to feedback from key stakeholders, including commuters, and the surrounding community.

This extraordinary achievement was not even imaginable just a decade ago when there was little agreement on either side of the Hudson on what to do with the aging bus terminal. There was not even agreement among the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners.

In 2014, the lone — and I say this with great admiration for a former colleague — loud voice for a bus terminal worthy of the people it serves was New Jersey’s then-State Sen. Loretta Weinberg.

She led the charge. She challenged leaders in both states to do something. She also challenged them to see for themselves the facility thousands of New Jerseyans suffered through each day: plastic buckets filling with water, concourses in need of cleaning and immediate upgrades and long, twisting lines for working escalators. And then there were the public restrooms!

In the immediate years following, the Port Authority addressed many quality-of-life issues — the bus terminal is cleaner, new escalators and lighting improve the customer experience, there’s free Wi-Fi, and restrooms have been remodeled, but the bottom line remains that the current bus terminal, built 73 years ago, was never designed to accommodate today’s passenger volumes nor the wear of nearly three quarters of a century of use. It must be replaced.

Saying it doesn’t make it happen. Building consensus is never easy. To build a new bus terminal in the heart of midtown Manhattan, the Port Authority had to first build consensus within the agency itself. But before we could even do that, we had to restore integrity within the Port Authority, a top priority for myself and my extraordinary partner at the Port Authority for more than six years, executive director Rick Cotton, who defines integrity in public service.

Together, we recognized that to move vital, long-delayed regional infrastructure projects forward, we had to ensure that the bi-state agency never lost sight of its core mission: “to the move the region.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey needed to deliver — deliver new airports, new bridges and restore its iconic legacy infrastructure that still serves the public well today.

With the support of the governors of New York and New Jersey, with a unified Board of Commissioners, and with the greatest of workforces — the 8,000 employees of the Port Authority — the Port Authority has been delivering across the region.

What the Port Authority did at LaGuardia, at the new Terminal A at Newark Liberty International, and is doing at John F. Kennedy International, it now will do at the Midtown Bus Terminal.

Through a comprehensive and inclusive process, the Port Authority has achieved consensus on what to build, where to build it and how to build it. The agency listened, heard, and learned from the input of all the stakeholders affected by this massive undertaking, including input from New York City, commuters, local community boards and elected officials in both states.

More: Makeover for aging, cramped Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan could start in 2024

A tribute to Weinberg’s leadership

A decade ago, Weinberg started a conversation that the Port Authority continues to engage in every single day.

The Port Authority’s revised plan for a $10 billion, world-class transportation hub includes a new 2.1 million-square-foot main bus terminal with an iconic atrium entrance on 41st Street and Eighth Avenue, a separate storage and staging building, and new ramps leading directly into and out of the Lincoln Tunnel.

It will add capacity, allowing curbside inter-city buses that currently pick up and drop off on city streets surrounding the bus terminal to move their operations inside the bus terminal and off the streets, reducing road congestion and gas emissions; be designed to be net zero, serving an all-electric bus fleet and implementing 21st century technology throughout; and will also create at the end of construction 3.5 acres of publicly accessible green spaces on Port Authority property.

And the bus terminal project is expected to create approximately 6,000 good-paying union construction jobs.

The new, “revolutionary as it is large,” Midtown Bus Terminal will be about more than moving buses and commuters. It will be an extension of the vibrant cultures that make our region dynamic and unique, pulsing with the energy of workers, shoppers, tourists, and the people who live and work surrounding it.

In 1950, the original Midtown Bus Terminal was a city unto itself. The new Midtown Bus Terminal will not look in; it will look out. It will be part of the neighborhood, part of the city, and part of the region.

After nearly three-quarters of a century, it’s about time.

Kevin J. O’Toole is the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Kevin O’Toole

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: We deserve a new Midtown Bus Terminal worthy of the people of NJ, NY