The Port Authority Bus Terminal is strained by age and usage. Now the Port Authority is beginning to consider how to renovate or replace the country's largest bus terminal, and some of the options carry eye-popping price tags. NY1's Jose Martinez filed this report. 

The Port Authority Bus Terminal is a dreary but vital crossroads for more than 230,000 bus riders from both sides of the Hudson every day.

It's no favorite of commuters.

"When I get off, I'm like, 'Eww, gross!'" one commuter says.

Nor is it a favorite of comedians.

“Its reputation is terrible. Because the only thing people think of when they hear its name is the Port Authority Bus Terminal, also known as the single-worst place on Planet Earth,” comedian John Oliver said on "Last Week Tonight."

The Port Authority is about to unveil its Master Plan for the depot.

"Just look up at the ceilings, look at the walls, it's a mess. It's a mess. For what you're paying for, this place is a mess," says another commuter. 

According to the website Capital New York, the options include building a new terminal on the same site, at a staggering cost of more than $10 billion.

That's more than the cost of  building three new Second Avenue subway stations, or five Yankee Stadiums.

Mitchell Moss of NYU's Wagner School of Public Service says the 65-year-old bus depot is showing its age and is stretched to capacity.

"We have seen enormous growth in the number of people who are commuting from the west, from New Jersey and from parts of Pennsylvania. Therefore the buses are really overflowing into the bus terminal. It's long overdue for a rehabilitation," says Moss.

The Port Authority says only that in 25 years, the terminal will be used by as many as 42,000 commuters an hour close to 50 percent more than now.

Funding will be a challenge, though. The Port Authority has been blasted for massive cost overruns at the $4 billion World Trade Center transit hub, and tolls at its bridges and tunnels now cost $14 round trip.

"The Port Authority has to present a case not just for rebuilding the bus terminal but for how it intends to finance it. And I don't think we can speculate until we see what their plans are," says Moss.

The Port Authority will present the plan during the public session of its board meeting on Thursday.