I occasionally travel in from the PABT, and have always been impressed with - considering the volume - how smoothly everything runs. I usually commute home from the PATH station at JSQ or Hoboken, and those are a regular cluster-f@ck. It's insane how long the wait is for an 87 bus is! I wonder if it's because the typical 87 rider is a "local" commuter, as opposed to someone coming from a relatively prestigious or higher-paying job in NYC?

But, hey! If the buses run even more smoothly out of PABT, it will probably be faster to get from my place in the Heights via the 124 to the PABT and the 3 train to City Hall in lower Manhattan, than it is to deal with the 87 and the PATH...

Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

No one will ever mistake the gritty Port Authority Bus Terminal with Disneyland, except that the commuter hub and amusement park share one thing, long lines of customers waiting for a ride.

But things may be getting a little better for commuters in what some describe as the unhappiest place on earth.

Port Authority and NJ Transit officials have attacked that problem over the last six to seven weeks by doing what might seem unthinkable ? giving 1,600 commuter buses less, rather than more time, to get across the Hudson in the afternoon.

The goal is eliminating the long lines of riders that snaked around the corridors of the terminal's second floor and reducing the chaotic mob scene of commuters standing on the third and fourth floors, which generated many complaints on social media this summer.

Think of the terminal like a merry-go-round, where ideally, buses come in, load up and get out.

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