A study to improve and expand the Port Authority Bus Terminal was granted funds yesterday at the monthly meeting of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). Board members approved a $5 million contract to “create a comprehensive, long-term plan that will improve the quality of interstate public transit services and reduce the impacts of interstate buses on surrounding communities.”  According to the press release, the study will look at options for enhancements to the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) and possible terminal replacement, a state-of-good-repair investment program, and new bus staging and storage facilities on the west side of Manhattan to improve bus operations and limit the amount of buses idling on city streets

The study is welcome news for the 225,000 bus riders who make the bus terminal their destination every day. John Durso, an NJ Transit spokesman, applauded the PANYNJ’s decision to move forward with the study. “As the Port Authority said today, they are committed to transforming the Bus Terminal into a world-class facility, and making bus transit the most reliable mode of access to midtown Manhattan. This will benefit NJ TRANSIT’s customers for decades to come.” As pointed out in the now defunct Access to the Region’s Core Environmental Impact Statement, more people cross the Hudson River by bus than by rail, and improvements and capacity expansion are sorely needed to accommodate this ridership.

The announcement is an important step towards addressing capacity limitations of PABT, which have long been a concern for transit advocates. Other measures to consider as part of this comprehensive study are the conversion of a general purpose lane into a joint High Occupancy Toll and express bus lane and the creation of a westbound bus lane in the Lincoln Tunnel during evening rush hours.

These measures will enhance the capacity of the Exclusive Bus Lane (XBL) in the Lincoln Tunnel, which accommodates three times as many buses as it did in when it first opened in 1971. But the resulting widespread PATH and NJ Transit shutdowns in the wake of Super Storm Sandy only highlights the need for further trans-Hudson bus capacity as a way to create redundancy in the region’s transit system.