BusTalk

[Q65A]

From Bus Ride magazine:
http://busride.com/2011/07/facelift-set-for-george-washington-bridge-bus-station/

[N4 Jamaica]

When the improvements are made by 2013, the terminal will have been in use for fifty years. I recall the bus stations at Broadway and 168th Street, and I have visited and used the GWB terminal intermittently over the years, each time more disheartened. Please allow a few thoughts, subject to error and debate.
----
The old terminals were served by three subway routes: 8th Avenue express, 8th or 6th Avenue local (depending on time of day), and the Broadway-7th Avenue IRT. The new terminal was located on a single route, the A. Less convenient. And the A train aged, and the stations and passageways became dirty.
----
Meanwhile, instead of traveling in a crowded A train to the GWB, one could later choose a one-seat comfortable coach that might use the Turnpike from Interchanges 16 to 18. As I paid visits to GWB terminal over the decades and noted the destinations of the routes, they seemed to narrow into a portion of near Bergen county. The PA website seems to say weekday passenger count is 17,000, presumably 8,500 arriving, 8,500 departing. I wonder how much traffic a $180,000,000 facelift will bring!
Joe

[Mr. Linsky]

N4J,

Is there any remnant left of the 168th. Street terminal in Washington Heights that I assume is the one that we kids used to take joy rides on Fifth Avenue Coach double deckers up to back in the early fifties?

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

[N4 Jamaica]

Thank you. That is a good question. I just did a virtual tour of the neighborhood on Google Street View and cannot find the old terminals. My surprise is to see a Columbia-Presbyterian hospital building "pavilion" on the southeast corner of 168th and St. Nicholas Avenue, and a school on the northeast corner. Memory can be faulty, but I think Intercity (brown buses from a Maplewood depot?) had a ticket office surrounded by a parking lot where that pavilion now stands. I think Red and Tan may also have had a parking lot and ticket office. Mom grew up in an apartment on 169th Street (at a time when the Highlanders or Yankees were playing nearby, though she never mentioned it to us). Hilltop Park became the site of the hospital, which has expanded greatly. In the 1940's, she would bring us to visit friends on 169th Street. That's why I remember the intersection.
-----
I think you may have posted a view of one of the terminals in the Vintage thread, but I cannot find it.
Best wishes.
Joe

[N4 Jamaica]

Routes to and from the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal, 178th Street, Manhattan. The data is assembled from Wikipedia and timetables. Summer, 2011. Probably there are errors.
- - - - -
Rockland Coaches (Coach USA)
Route 9 and branches, PABT, GWB, to Nyack. Unclear from the timetable whether the buses from PABT really reenter Manhattan for the GWB stop or use the station in Fort Lee.
Route 11C, from GWB to Spring Valley. Every hour or two from Platform 20.
Route 14, one trip daily (in evening rush) from GWB to Westwood.
Route 84, eight or nine trips daily (rush hours only) from GWB to Harrington Park and other towns.
- - - - - -
New Jersey Transit
Route 171 from GWB to Paterson via NJ State Hwy 4. Former Inter City (Maplewood Equipment) route dating from 1933, the opening of the bridge. This route travels mostly on a state highway that provides curbside stations. The highway has grade-separated connections with other roads, but allows access to businesses adjacent on the right. There are no traffic signals. On weekdays, about 23 trips depart from GWB. During midday, the service is hourly.
Route 175 from GWB to Hackensack, Paramus, and Ridgewood. Former Garden State Bus Lines, a subsidiary of Maplewood Equipment. On weekdays, about 26 trips daily. During midday, the headway is 40 minutes.
Route 178 from GWB to Teaneck and Hackensack. Former Public Service bus route. This route has about 27 weekday departures from GWB, with midday headway of an hour. However, as route 182 shares both east and west terminals, the two alternating routes provide double the service to Hackensack Bus Terminal. A single timetable includes both Routes 178 and 182.
Route 181 from GWB to Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Bergenline Avenue station in Union City. This hourly route runs along the populated ridge between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers. Until the late 1930's, a Public Service streetcar climbed up from the Weehawken Ferry and traveled this ridge. Its right-of-way can still be seen in places because of Public Service transmission lines. Route 181 provides eleven trips daily.
Route 182. From GWB to Teaneck and Hackensack. Another replacement for a Public Service streetcar line, but this one east-west. There are about 26 weekday departures from GWB. See Route 178 above.
Route 186. From GWB to Englewood, Bergenfield, and Dumont. A Public Service bus route dating from the suburban development (aided by the bridge) of the late 1930's. The weekday service is 37 departures from GWB, with a midday headway of 40 minutes.
Route 188. From GWB the route descends to River Road, which moves south along the narrow strip between the Hudson River and the cliffs of the Palisades. The major borough on route is Edgwater. River Road climbs the cliffs at 60th Street, West New York, where Route 188 now terminates at Bergenline Avenue. An earlier riveredge bus route used to continue to Weehawken and Hoboken.
- - - - - -
It would appear that the busiest routes out of GWB are 178/182 to Hackensack and 186 to Dumont. Subject to direct observation!

[traildriver]

When I worked for Continental Trailways in NYC from 1968 until 1971, every TNE (Trailways of New England), schedule except one (the 1:00 AM departure to Boston and Portland), made a station stop there 30 minutes after or prior to the PABT.
The arcticle stated that the Bridge Terminal opened in 1963. I believe that was done in conjunction with the double decking of the George Washington Bridge as part of the master plan to serve the anticipated heavy World's Fair traffic along with the new Throggs Neck and Verrazano Narrows Bridges, and several new highways ramrodded thru by Bob ("The Builder") Moses. We could sure use the likes of him nowadays with our crumbling overcrowded infrastructure!
Back in those days, Short Line also ran a few schedules from there to Bergen County and on up to Liberty. And probably a few others serving the region.
To my knowledge, Greyhound did not use that terminal on its PABT to New England schedules, but did stop a few in Harlem at 125th and Fifth, or the old West Bronx Bus Terminal. Later on, when Greyhound ran a few expresses from New England to Philly and DC that bypassed the PABT, they may have made a stop there.