Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: New York Governor Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and Port Authority Break Ground on Dyer Avenue Deck-Overs, Marking First Stage of New Midtown Bus Terminal Construction

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey today broke ground on the Dyer Avenue deck-overs, marking the first stage in construction of the new Midtown Bus Terminal. The deck-overs will facilitate construction of the new bus terminal and will be used for staging of buses during construction. Ultimately, the deck-overs will be transformed into 3.5 acres of new publicly accessible open green space after construction of the new bus terminal is complete.

B-ROLL of Governor Hochul breaking ground on the new site with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New York elected officials can be found on YouTube and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Hello, everyone. What a spectacular day to be here today with all of you on this historic day for New York City in our entire region. 75 years ago, the Port Authority Bus station opened its doors. Looks like it, doesn't it? Countless, millions have passed through since then on their way to work. To shop, to see Broadway shows, to visit loved ones, or to experience our magnificent city for the very first time. And for many, this bus station is their first impression of New York City.

We can do better. We must do better. This is about our image. And I will digress to say, and we're going to do the same with Penn Station. I want that to be magnificent and we're going to get that done. But let's be honest, after more than seven decades of nonstop use, this terminal is showing its age. And in recent decades, many have tried, yet many have failed to get this station rebuilt.

In 2007, there was a plan with the developer to renovate it with a tower on the top. Well, that didn't go anywhere. In 2013, there was another attempt met by fierce community pushback. As recently as 2019, there was an effort started to bring back the 2013 plan, and none of these proposals managed to achieve what we're doing collectively today — breaking ground on a new Midtown bus terminal. This is a once-in-a-generation to get it right, and here we are because of the dedication of so many people who could believe that this day would come.

Now I want to acknowledge my partner in government. And you don't hear this a lot with respect to New York and New Jersey, but we actually like each other. We're both Irish. We're going to have a beer as soon as we leave here — and that's what was missing, perhaps Phil. But I'm so proud to be here today with you to show your residents that we believe they also deserve more when they come in – to their jobs to work, to recreate because they're part of our regional family.

And to all the commuters coming in from Orange County and Rockland, you deserve better as well. This Bud’s for you. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Thank you, Phil. Thank you to Kevin O’Toole, our Chairman of the Port Authority, who's had to overcome so many challenges and I respect him immensely. Rick Cotton, who comes to me with the most brilliant ideas, and I always say, Rick, you had me at hello.

I want to build, I want to do more. I want to show our audacity, our ambition to remind people how great we are. I want to thank you for extraordinary leadership for many, many years. And then who's going to build it? I know who's going to build it. Gary LaBarbera and his men and women are going to build it.

And our members of Congress who support it, Congressman Jerry Nadler, who believed we could do better as well. Let's give him a round of applause. Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, representing the city, has joined us here today. And councilmembers Erik Bottcher and Selvena Brooks-Powers, who never gave up on this. And I see Brad Hoylman, the late entry. There you go. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who's been a long time friend of mine — and all the community board members, if you're part of a community board, raise your hand and thank you for all you do. Pushing us to do better, pushing us to do better, meeting the moment. And all the local businesses and the advocates.

This takes not a village, it takes a city. It takes states. And that's why we're here today and we worked hand in hand with local officials and get this — you don't hear this every day of the week — we secured unanimous approval through the city council's land use project. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Well done.

We negotiated a $2 billion pilot agreeing with the city and the port authority unlocking financing that's finally making this project possible. And we're delivering a project that meets the moment, transportation that is worthy, this transportation hub that is worthy of the greatest city in the world.

Because in New York, we don't just talk, we build. Just look what we did not far from here with the Gateway Tunnel. That project was dead on arrival when I first became Governor. Everyone said it was impossible. It had gone through countless governors and mayors and presidents. But I said, “This must happen.” I would not take no for an answer, teamed up with my partners and said, “We can get this done and work with Governor Murphy.”

So we rolled up our sleeves, with all the federal leaders and the regional partners, we secured $16 billion to make Gateway become a reality. But you know what's even more exciting to me, as someone who's born and bred in a labor family? That's 100,000 good-paying labor jobs. Same story with the Second Avenue subway extension in East Harlem.

It was completely stalled when I first became Governor. We brought it back to life with $3.4 billion of federal funds. Don't touch our federal funds for the Second Avenue subway — if anybody's listening in Washington, it's another fight you don't want to have.

We also secured money for the engineering and design of the Interborough Express. How exciting is that? That'll transform how New Yorkers can get from Brooklyn to Queens and vice versa. And we broke ground on the Penn Station access project that finally gives the Bronx and Westchester residents that direct line into Penn Station.

And now the Midtown Bus terminal. Time and time again, I have worked with my extraordinary team to bring projects, legacy projects that could have happened at any point in our history and should have. But people said they were too hard, just too damn hard, and we made them become a reality.

That's what New York deserves, and this terminal sees upwards of 8,000 buses going in and out every single day serving 200,000 people – every weekday – those are extraordinary numbers. As I said, they're commuters from New Jersey, Rockland, Orange counties, and people from around the world, and the demand is just growing. So we're stepping up today with the Dyer Avenue deck overs. May not sound exciting to a lot of you deck overs, okay.

Believe me, ribbon cuttings are a lot more fun, and I plan to be around when this ribbon cutting is accomplished — a decade from now. They told me 10 years, Rick, you I'm going to make you shave off time. I mean, that's just how I operate. Like, yeah. Gary, we can do it sooner than 10 years, right? Alright, Gary says, we're going to make it happen. We're going to shave off time. That's how we roll here.

But we're going to lay the groundwork for a world class terminal. It's not just any project. It's going to have a gleaming 2.1 million square feet main terminal. Drivers seamless trips for hundreds, hundreds of people and alleviate the traffic for this community. This is so important to our residents and remove the inner city buses from the neighborhood streets. That's why I also wanted to get this done. This community deserves better. They don't need their kids growing up with idling buses, with all the fumes, making them sick, they deserve better. And we'll also give them what they deserve. 3.5 acres of open green space for recreation. This is going to be transformed, it will also be a new civic landmark.

But when it comes to delivering projects, the Port Authority delivers. And I want to thank them again for everything they've done. We work closely on the JFK Airport terminals one and six. We got those going and creating a world-class experience.

So my point is this, whether you're flying in, taking a bus in, taking a train in, I want everyone to have a wow factor when they come to this city and to walk away or drive away, or go away and say to others, “New York has finally met the moment.” We are a city, a region worthy of all the ambition that people imagine around us because we got it done. I'm excited about this project. If you can tell. I'm going to be pushing it hard for an accomplishment, but this one is for the community and all of our communities. You've deserved this for a long time, and today, the future has arrived. Congratulations to everybody involved.