. In 1963,
Greyhound Lines became the last company to move to PABT. Before PABT was constructed, there were several terminals scattered throughout Midtown Manhattan, some of which were part of hotels. The
Federal Writers' Project's 1940 publication of
New York: A Guide to the Empire State lists the All American Bus Depot on West 42nd, the Consolidated Bus Terminal on West 41st, and the
Hotel Astor Bus Terminal on West 45th. The
Dixie Bus Center on 42nd Street, located on the ground floor of the Dixie Hotel, opened in 1930 and operated until 1959. The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had coach service aboard a
ferry to
Communipaw Terminal in
Jersey City that ran from an elegant bus terminal with a revolving bus platform in the
Chanin Building at 42nd and Lexington. at which time all long-distance bus service to the city was consolidated at the terminal. The city opposed letting buses go through Midtown Manhattan because they caused congestion. A large bus terminal near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel was first mandated in December 1939, after the city announced that it would ban commuter buses from driving into congested parts of Midtown. The ban was supposed to go into effect in January 1941, but New York Supreme Court Justice
John E. McGeehan blocked La Guardia's proposed bus ban on the grounds that it was unreasonable. In July 1940, at the request of New York City mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia, the Port of New York Authority started conducting a survey into the causes and effects of intercity and commuter bus traffic in Manhattan. That December, Times Square Terminal Inc. filed an application to build and operate a commuter bus terminal from 41st to 42nd Streets between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, adjacent to the
McGraw-Hill Building on land owned by the
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. According to projections at the time, the $4 million terminal could be completed within nine months. Manhattan Borough President
Stanley M. Isaacs proposed building a short $600,000 tube between the Lincoln Tunnel and the new terminal. The city approved the construction of the new terminal and connecting tunnel in January 1941. Plans for a bus terminal were delayed because of
World War II, which diverted resources from most projects that were not directly involved in the war effort. In June 1944, the New York state government allocated $180,000 to the Port of New York Authority for studying the feasibility of constructing a bus terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Early the next year, plans for a mid-Manhattan bus terminal were presented to the different bus companies. While most major bus lines agreed to the plan, Greyhound was already planning on expanding its then terminal near Penn Station. Greyhound initially opposed the terminal but withdrew its opposition in late 1947.
Construction The
New York City Board of Estimate approved the construction of the new terminal in January 1947. The Port of New York Authority began acquiring land for the terminal two months later. To finance the terminal's construction, the agency issued $16.3 million in bonds in July 1947. Plans for the structural design were revised substantially in March 1948, when the Port of New York Authority added a 500-spot parking lot on the terminal's roof, to be accessed via a series of ramps. The last industrial tenant on the future terminal's site moved away the following month, and the agency began relocating the first of 450 displaced families in November 1948. Walter McQuade designed the terminal, with Vincent Marchesani as the assistant architect. at which point half of the site had been cleared. At the same time, the agency began soliciting bids from concessionaires for the terminal's 50 stores. The first steel beams for the new bus terminal were installed in November 1949, and
Turner Construction received a contract the next month to build the terminal's superstructure for approximately $9.2 million. The steel framework for the new terminal topped out during March 1950. The terminal's construction was delayed slightly by a labor strike in the middle of that year. Despite this, the terminal was substantially complete by November 1, 1950. The project had employed 1,055 men and used 1.53 million bricks and of concrete.
Original terminal , while the lower level of the North Wing connects with a tunnel under
Ninth Avenue. The original Mid-Manhattan Bus Terminal (now PABT's South Wing), built in the
International Style, was opened on December 15, 1950. The four-story terminal measured and was tall, with a 500-space parking lot and 50 stores. The ground level contained 40 slips for long-haul buses, as well as an auxiliary platform with space for 15 more buses. The second level was the main concourse and contained ticket offices, waiting rooms, baggage check, restaurants, shops, a 300-seat newsreel theater, and escalators to other levels. The third story was the suburban concourse, which was divided into three sections and contained 72 loading slips and 15 unloading slips. The fourth story was for short-haul buses. A system of pipes was embedded into the reinforced-concrete ramps leading to the terminal, keeping the ramps free of ice. The Port of New York Authority had also proposed a
heliport on the roof during the terminal's construction, and the agency had authorized the construction of a ramp to the
42nd Street and Eighth Avenue subway station just before the terminal opened. During its first year, the Port Authority Bus Terminal accommodated 40 million passengers; the terminal's construction was credited with diverting 5,000 buses per day from street-level bus stops. The terminal had replaced a series of coffee shops frequented by the elderly; after the coffee shops had been demolished, patrons of these establishments began meeting at the terminal instead. The terminal's rooftop garage was initially mostly empty, prompting the garage's operators to allow trucks to park there. By mid-1951, the garage was frequently fully occupied and was profitable. Despite the large numbers of passengers who used the terminal, it recorded a net loss during its first five years, in part due to high operating expenses, debt charges, and interest costs.
Expansions and modifications First expansion In September 1959, the Port of New York Authority announced that it would spend $19 million to increase the bus terminal's capacity by 50 percent. The plans involved converting the existing parking lot atop the building with 25 spaces for long-haul buses and 32 spaces for short-haul buses. In addition, a 1,000-space parking lot would be built above the existing roof. That December, the Port of New York Authority approved $24 million for the expansion of the terminal and for the widening of several ramps leading from the terminal to the Lincoln Tunnel. Construction of the expansion took place during off-peak hours to minimize disruptions to bus service. As part of an experiment in 1960, the Port of New York Authority installed a canopy above one of the loading slips to shield commuters from buses' emissions. The first of 30 "legs" supporting the new parking lot were installed in November 1960, and the existing parking lot was closed the following March. The expansion
topped out in June 1961, The Port of New York Authority sold $25 million in
bonds for the expansions of the Port Authority Bus Terminal and
George Washington Bridge in January 1962. The new ramps to the Lincoln Tunnel were finished the next month. The first 300 spaces in the new parking lot opened in April 1962, and the rest of the parking lot was opened in stages over the next two months. The new loading slips were opened in several stages and were in full operation by April 1963.
Decline As early as the mid-1960s, the Port Authority Bus Terminal had gained a reputation as a "derelict's haven", especially at night, when dozens of homeless persons slept in the terminal. Following a
New York Times report about the large homeless populations in the terminal, the PANYNJ began stationing additional officers there in January 1967 to deter homeless people from sleeping there. The PANYNJ also added a CCTV system in 1966 in an attempt to reduce crime.
The New York Times reported in 1969 that hustlers frequently harassed the terminal's passengers; at the time, the
Port Authority Police Department arrested 130 people per month. By the early 1970s, the PANYNJ had redecorated some of the terminal's spaces, adding glass enclosures and rubber trees in an attempt to discourage loiterers. The PANYNJ also built a
coffeehouse in late 1971 for elderly residents of the area who frequented the terminal, and the
New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission installed a
taxi-dispatch system at the terminal in 1972. Meanwhile, the terminal still accommodated an average of 250,000 passengers daily by 1975, even as the number of buses traveling to the terminal had started to decline in 1968. Hustlers, pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, muggers, panhandlers, sexual predators and the homeless still frequented the terminal, which also attracted runaway youth from other cities. The Port Authority Bus Terminal also recorded hundreds of crimes every year by the late 1970s; this was attributed in part to the "lonely and derelict" in the neighborhood. In March 1975, a federal judge ruled that the PANYNJ "was not competent to" allocate loading space to the bus companies that used the terminal, since the agency had never properly studied traffic patterns at the terminal. The
Interstate Commerce Commission began investigating overcrowding at the terminal that March after receiving numerous commuter complaints that the PANYNJ and bus operators had "failed to provide safe and adequate service". After the PANYNJ announced the next month that it would build an annex north of the original terminal, the ICC canceled a public hearing for its overcrowding investigation. One of the operators using the terminal,
Trailways, began a
rent strike in 1977, complaining that the terminal was dilapidated and that rent at the terminal was far too high. but the company criticized the terminal's safety after two people were killed there in mid-1978.
Northern annex Private developer Irving Maidman had proposed erecting a second bus terminal just north of the existing terminal in 1956. The PANYNJ first considered expanding the bus station northward to 42nd Street as early as January 1965; the
New York City Planning Commission endorsed the plan, which was not carried out at that time. The PANYNJ announced plans in 1970 to expand its terminal northward and build an office tower above the north annex. The annex would have cost $80 million, while the skyscraper above it would have cost $50 million. Plans for the annex were delayed for several years because of disputes between the PANYNJ and the bus companies using the terminal. The PANYNJ claimed that the bus companies had refused to pay higher fees, but unnamed sources affiliated with the bus companies said the
construction of the World Trade Center had used up the agency's money. The expansion was delayed until May 1975, when PANYNJ chairman
William J. Ronan announced that the expansion would begin that September at a cost of $137.5 million. The project also included replacing existing escalators. To raise money for the annex, the PANYNJ raised tolls by 50 percent on six bridges and tunnels that it operated between New York and New Jersey. That August, the PANYNJ allocated another $22 million for the terminal's renovation. The additional funds were earmarked for renovating the main concourse, erecting glass enclosures around 24 platforms, adding entrances on Ninth Avenue, refurbishing the restrooms, and replacing the air-conditioning system. The North Wing was opened in 1979. This expansion increased capacity by 50 percent and included a new facade comprising 27 steel X-shaped trusses. Assessing the facade design in 2008,
Virtualtourist listed the terminal as one of the "World's Top 10 Ugliest Buildings and Monuments". The northern annex included 50 loading slips, with space for another 25 slips, as well as a
arcade recessed from the 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue facades. During 1997, the terminal was the subject of a study, coordinated by Professor Marcus Felson of
Rutgers University, which identified strategic changes to the building's design and area supervision with a view to reducing crime and other problems. In 2007, the South Wing underwent a
seismic retrofit in a $52 million
building code-compliance project to reinforce and stabilize it against earthquakes. In addition, architecture firm PKSB Architects was hired in 1995 to design a titanium facade, a canopy above the entrance, and stainless steel cladding around the terminal's ramps and bridges. That project was completed in 2008. On
September 11, 2001, the terminal closed and service was suspended, as all motor vehicle traffic into and out of Manhattan was shut down after the attacks. Partial service resumed on September 13 at 5:00 a.m., two hours after the reopening of the terminal's primary access route, the
Lincoln Tunnel. The terminal, and intercity bus routes traveling through it, became an alternative method of transportation for stranded travelers whose flights had been canceled during the nationwide
ground stop.
Further expansion proposals Air rights The PANYNJ has attempted to further expand the terminal through
public–private partnerships by leasing
air rights over the North Wing. In 1999, a 35-story building, to be known as 7 Times Square, was proposed to be constructed over the North Wing and a golf
driving range was to be constructed over the South Wing. However, the project was put on hold in 2001 due to a decline in the economy following the
dot com bust. Between 2000 and 2011, the PANYNJ worked with
Vornado Realty Trust, which had partnered with the Lawrence Ruben Company. Plans for the tower were revived in April 2007. The new tower would include of commercial space in a new office tower, which was to use the vanity address
20 Times Square, the addition of of new retail space in the bus terminal, as well as 18 additional departure gates, accommodating 70 additional buses carrying up to 3,000 passengers per hour. New escalators would be installed to help move passengers more quickly between the gate area and the ground floor. Construction was expected to begin in 2009 or 2010, and take four years to complete. After an architectural competition, the PANYNJ selected the design by
Pritzker Prize-winning architect
Richard Rogers from
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for a 45-story office tower with an overall height of . The agreement expired in August 2009, and in May 2010, Vornado was given a retroactive extension on the deadline to August 2011. In July 2011, Vornado announced they had found a new partner to partially finance the tower, In June 2014, the PANYNJ received a higher price than anticipated for the sale of nearby property, $115 million versus $100 million. The value of air rights above the terminal would be higher than previously appraised, thanks to rising property values in the area surrounding the terminal and an indication of the rising value air rights above the terminal. The agency had intentions to release a request for proposals for air-rights development in 2014–2015.
West Side bus depot for daytime parking. The Port Authority allows for limited
layovers of buses, thus requiring companies to make other arrangements during off-peak hours and between trips. Many park on local streets or parking lots during the day, while others make a round-trip without passengers through the Lincoln Tunnel to use layover facilities in New Jersey. Various studies and news reports have concluded that there is a need for a new bus depot in Midtown. In a joint study by New York City and PANYNJ, it was determined that a preferred location for a bus depot was at Galvin Plaza located on 39th to 40th Streets between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. However, this proposed location for commuter buses would not have capacity for
charter buses and
tour buses. Originally included in the PANYNJ 2007–2016 Capital Plan, construction of the garage was scrapped by the agency in October 2011, after it cited budgetary constraints due to an arrangement whereby the toll increases would be incrementally implemented. In April 2012, the director of the PANYNJ reported that a proposal had been made by developer
Larry Silverstein, who has a memorandum of understanding to develop a property at 39th Street and
Dyer Avenue near the ramps between the tunnel and the terminal, to construct a bus garage with a residential tower above it. This parcel is not large enough to accommodate bus ramps and would require the use of elevators, which seemed to be a new type of application for bus storage. The proposal has not progressed any further. In 2014, the PANYNJ made an application for a $230 million grant to the
Federal Transit Administration for development of the garage. The $5.5 million contract awarded to
Kohn Pedersen Fox and
Parsons Brinckerhoff would look into potential public-private financing, including the sale of
air rights and cost-sharing with private bus carriers. In 2016, the PANYNJ invited a number of development teams to propose ideas for replacement of the existing bus terminal. Subsequently, in May 2019, the PANYNJ commenced the environmental review process for PABT's replacement. The PANYNJ planned to host four public hearings, two each in New York and New Jersey, in July and September 2019. Three plans were considered: building a new terminal on the site, building a new terminal elsewhere, or moving intercity buses elsewhere while renovations took place in the existing terminal. In anticipation of opportunities that reconstruction of the bus terminal will portend, the Hell's Kitchen South Coalition produced its own plan for the area. In January 2021, the PANYNJ released plans for reconstructing the terminal on the same site, with expansion of bus layover facilities. The PANYNJ hired architects Boston-based
Foster + Partners and Chicago-based design and engineering firm Epstein Global in August 2022 to design the new terminal, and $65 million was allocated to the project the next year. In January 2024, the
Federal Transit Administration approved a
draft environmental impact report for the replacement terminal. The PANYNJ announced revised plans for the terminal the same month, which called for of parks, a glass atrium, and a main entrance on 41st Street. The plans also called for two office buildings of at least 60 stories on 40th and 42nd streets. Part of 41st Street from Eighth to Ninth avenues would be closed permanently, and there would be an additional building for bus storage and
staging areas, At the time, the new terminal was planned to cost $10 billion; new ramps to the terminal were to be completed by 2028, while the terminal itself was planned to be finished by 2032. and the plan received federal approval that December. In January 2025, the
United States Department of Transportation disbursed a $1.89 billion grant for the Port Authority Bus Terminal's reconstruction. Work began on May 29, 2025, when a
groundbreaking ceremony for a temporary terminal on Dyer Avenue between 37th and 39th streets was hosted. ==Art and advertising==