The Confusing Port Authority Bus Terminal, Unclear on what Buses Have Actually Resumed – No Subways = Gridlock, Part 3

This post is the third (Post 1|Post 2) in a multi-post series about my day wandering down to Midtown Manhattan after Superstorm Sandy when there was no subway service and the only train service to Manhattan was the Metro-North Harlem Line that resumed hourly service after 2pm, all bus service was fare-free.

I continued walking down 8th Avenue to the 42nd Street-PBAT Subway Station–(7 Photos).

I had to also enter the actual Port Authority Bus Terminal that had some bus service running but no Greyhound (its north underground concourse was closed) and no New Jersey Transit although there were no signs in the terminal to say this. There were plenty of signs saying the subway is closed all printed in simple fonts on large pieces of butcher paper. Since the PBAT lacks unified departure boards I have absolutely no idea what bus lines were actually operating. There was a line of people asking the couple of employees at the information booths where there buses were. There were tons of people particularly mad that Greyhound hadn’t resumed service yet although they are scheduled to tomorrow (and one who claimed Greyhound’s Website had sold her a ticket, typical Greyhound). I ended up first entering the North Wing followed by the South Wing, it appeared the underground connection between the two was closed. Only on the South Wing was the lower level open (the north wing is Greyhounds closed concourse) and I was able to get the shot looking into the closed subway station.

I left and continued south to Penn Station, where I knew that no service resumptions had been announced. At that point it was about 1pm and the results of a press conference from Joe Lhota were in, Metro-North was resuming service in an hour, hourly service on the Harlem Line just to North White Plains.