NEW YORK (AP) -- More than 30,000 New Jersey and New York commuters will soon be hustling to different departure gates in the latest effort to improve the nation's busiest bus hub -- the congested, run-down Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

Port Authority Bus Terminal
Spencer Platt, Getty Images
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The changes, coming Sept. 8, are part of a drive to patch and upgrade the unloved, 65-year-old bus terminal, which was pronounced "unacceptable" last year by the chairman of the agency running it, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Port Authority commissioners have long said the building, west of Times Square near Broadway and some of the city's other most famous attractions, needs replacing, but officials have yet to muster resources for the estimated $1 billion-plus project.

Meanwhile, the agency is working on $90 million in smaller-bore repairs and looking for logistical fixes, such as the gate reassignment plan that officials detailed Monday.

It will concentrate New Jersey Transit buses on one floor and private commuter buses run by Coach USA on another. The idea: to cut down on jockeying for space and help each operator move buses more efficiently.

"These changes, we're hoping, will reduce the crowding" that sometimes causes bus bottlenecks, delays and lines, terminal general manager Diannae Ehler said Monday afternoon as buses streamed in, with a yellow-vested NJ Transit worker waving them into lanes and gates.

NJ Transit and Coach USA, which together carry about 75 percent of rush-hour passengers, support the moves.

About 220,000 inbound and outbound riders use the depot each weekday. By last year, when the Port Authority embarked on its $90 million plan, the terminal had been running a deficit of about $100 million a year. Passenger lines sometimes stretched to hundreds of people, and buses overflowed the terminal and sometimes idled as far as six blocks away.

The agency has since made various operational changes, plus some headway on repairing leaky ceilings, renovating bathrooms and improving wireless service. NJ Transit rider complaints about the terminal dropped by 67 percent in the May-through-July span this year, compared with the same period last year, Vice President Dennis Martin said.

Still, Ehler said, the changes so far "are really short-term fixes -- we recognize that -- while we work toward a long-term solution."

Some commuters said they appreciated the gate alignment effort, even if it won't solve all the terminal's problems.

"I'm glad to hear they're thinking about it," rider Malcolm MacPherson said as he waited for a New Jersey-bound bus on Monday. "The physical appearance is one thing, but if they could find a way to get the buses in and out faster, that would be good. It's the little things."

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