Amtrak goes ‘on the record’ about Penn Station

O'Donnell & Associates has closely followed the redevelopment of Penn Station, and we're now going "on the record" on the current state of the terminal and the plan that promises to make it a "world-class" transit hub.

It's been a redevelopment that's been decades in the making after multiple false starts. And even with the intervention of the Trump administration, that still doesn't guarantee that the plan will leave the station on time.

Aside from a long-overdue redevelopment finally appearing like it's going to become a reality, there's been tribal feuding among some of the players. Specifically, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been the spoiler, refusing to sign an agreement with Amtrak that would give up some of its decision-making rights on design changes to the station.

And then there's the question of whether President Donald Trump will release the funding the feds have promised. According to Sen. Chuck Schumer, Trump wanted his name on the station, otherwise, he would pull funding for the redevelopment and the Gateway tunnel project.

Read on for a look back at the station's golden years, how it declined and was demolished to make way for Madison Square Garden, known since its opening 58 years ago as "The World's Most Famous Arena," home of the world champion Knicks and Stanley Cup winning Rangers, and venue to big name concerts and headlining events – including Taylor Swift's wedding.

A look at the station's history

The original Penn Station, designed by McKim, Mead & White, was an architectural gem. The New York firm, which also designed the Brooklyn Museum, main campus of Columbia University, as well as buildings across the country, including the Boston Public Library and National Museum of History, designed Penn after the ancient Roman Baths of Caracalla.

It was a grand structure that prompted art historian Vincent Scully to famously say, "Through Penn Station one entered the city like a god."

However, the Beaux-Arts cathedral, built in 1910 and considered one of New York City's greatest architectural buildings, began outliving its usefulness with the advent of the automobile and airplane travel. That's when the station's owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad, began suffering financial losses from a decline in railroad passenger travel.

The railroad was unable to afford the upkeep and maintenance of the terminal and its 8-acre footprint. Penn began a slow decline from neglect and ultimately was razed in 1963 to make way for Madison Square Garden. The venue, bounded by 7th and 8th Avenues, sitting between West 31st and 33rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, was built on top of what remained of the station underground.

The new Penn Station, cut down to three-quarters of its original size, was fully operating by 1968. Scully followed up his "god" reference about entering the station after its destruction saying, "One scuttles in now like a rat." He wasn't alone in his disappointment.

New Yorkers and transportation and architectural advocates condemned the demolition of the original station, a painful and heartbreaking loss that led to the creation of New York City's landmark laws and its Landmarks Preservation Commission. Many will argue that was the only good to come out of the destruction of the original, in favor of the subterranean dark and crowded Penn Station that exists today.

The current state of Penn Station

Designed with ceilings as low as 7 feet and a claustrophobic labyrinth of confusing corridors that have exposed wiring and pipes, Penn serves 600,000 daily Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit commuters, Amtrak passengers and New York City Subway riders, three times the capacity it was designed to handle. That makes Penn the busiest transit station in the Western Hemisphere. And that capacity is only going to grow more when a Metro-North Railroad connection is completed in 2030.

The station has 21 tracks and 11 platforms on a single level below a main underground concourse. Having Madison Square Garden on top required the installation of 1,000 support columns, which obstruct the already narrow platforms. Passengers cannot wait on the platforms because of the tight space for safety reasons, which is why they are only allowed to descend on to the tracks for boarding minutes before a train's scheduled departure.

The station's infrastructure is old and in desperate need of replacing. That includes century old tracks and signals that cause costly disruptions and delays on a daily basis.

The NJ Transit side requires portable air conditioners and ceiling fans to deal with poor air circulation and has an infamous waiting area known as "The Pit," which corrals commuters while awaiting their track announcements.

An Amtrak waiting area designed for the debut of Amtrak's Acela high-speed rail service in 2000 has become outdated. Its most recent sprucing up added a bar and Starbucks. But for the most part, its appearance hasn't changed much in 26 years.

One section of the station offering a better travel experience is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Long Island Rail Road Concourse, which was given a major renovation that raised ceilings as high as 18 feet and widened its main corridor from 30 to 57 feet in 2023.

Gone are mirrored ceiling tiles that were installed to make the station appear bigger and brighter, along with vacant, shuttered Kmart, and multiple beer and snack vendors. Instead, the concourse has all new retail businesses, offering some of the most popular fast-food options. It also has a new canopy style entrance with an escalator on West 33rd Street.

Amtrak also renovated the station's main entrance, located on 7th Ave., replacing the escalators and adding an elevator. On 8th Avenue, Penn only has corner entrances with escalators that are hard to spot because of multiple Madison Square Garden venue entry points and venue signage.

The Moynihan Train Hall across the street in the old Farley Post Office Building opened in 2021, adding another 255,000 square feet of main concourse space to the existing Penn. It features an atrium topped by a 92-foot high glass roof that allows sunlight into the hall, evoking the lighting of the original Penn, which had a glass roof that reached 150 feet. Moynihan also has a popular food hall that's often packed with customers.

There have been calls for rebuilding or significantly redesigning the station for almost 60 years. At least a dozen plans have been proposed, but none have come to fruition. Part of the problem is the fragmentation of governance of the station. Amtrak owns Penn while the MTA and NJ Transit lease the station. And then there is James Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden, who operates the venue on a special operating permit issued by New York City, which expires in 2028.

A plan to redevelop Penn that promises to actually happen

The federal government stepped in last year to take over a redevelopment plan originally proposed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and inherited by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Hochul had no problem handing over the project to the Trump administration, which was taking on a good portion, if not all of the cost, and oversight of the design and construction, with the goal of breaking ground by the end of 2027.

The government entrusted Amtrak to take the lead on the redevelopment. A familiar face, Andy Byford, New York's "Train Daddy" — a nickname New Yorkers gave him while he served as president of New York City Transit, and who is now special adviser to Amtrak's Board of Directors — was placed in charge of the project. Byford, a respected transportation executive known for delivering results, gave the redevelopment the assurance and credibility it needed.

After a request for proposals, Penn Transportation Partners, or PTP, a joint venture between Halmar and Skanska, was chosen to be the master developer. PTP proposed removing the theater Madison Square Garden has operated underneath its arena on the 8th Avenue side of the venue.

Originally The Felt Forum, the theater has had many names over the years and is now known as the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden. The space would then be converted into a new 8th Avenue entrance, with windows allowing natural light onto a new single-level concourse with a ceiling as high as 50 feet and other ceiling heights of at least 20 feet. The interior would have an Art Deco-inspired look, complete with a clock hanging from the ceiling, reminiscent of the one that hung in the original Penn. The Moynihan Train Hall has a similar one inside its atrium.

An exterior for the new station with vertical columns would be built out in a rectangular configuration surrounding Madison Square Garden's arena. Both the station and arena would be covered by a stone facade designed in a Beaux-Arts and Art Deco inspired style that complements the Farley Post Office across the street. Farley, like the original Penn, was designed by McKim, Mead & White.

The cost and campaign to make the new Penn a reality

A public information campaign about Amtrak's redevelopment of Penn Station kicked off last week, offering details about the ambitious plan and promising to engage the public before construction starts. The campaign is viewed as a vital component for maintaining transparency on a project that must run on a tight timeline in order for the redevelopment to break ground by the end of next year. Construction is expected to last six years and has been projected to cost $6 to $7 billion.

"Well, this is an incredibly exciting project," said Byford during a webinar on Monday that kicked off the campaign. "One of our commitments is being transparent and keeping you posted as we progress along this journey to getting New York and New Jersey, and all users of the station, the station that New York deserves and that it needs, and that will be truly transformative for the whole of this region."

Byford was joined by Peter Cipriano, an executive vice president for Halmar International, who is serving as CEO and project manager of the redevelopment, and Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, who is serving as lead design architect on the new station.

The webinar was attended by elected officials from both New York and New Jersey, a representative from Gov. Hochul's office, members of the press and "hundreds, literally hundreds, of members of the public who are as interested in this project and as passionate about this project as certainly my team and I are," Byford noted.

Byford opened with a slide featuring him standing in front of a picture of the old Penn Station. "You can see behind me, actually, that's kind of an inspiration," he said on the broadcast.

"The tragedy is that, to me, what I always say when I put up this slide, that's what a New York station should look like," he continued. "That's what you think you're going to arrive in. And of course, we had that. That was a beautiful station that only lasted around 50 years. It was built in 1910. It was torn down in the 1960s for various reasons, and I think there's been a lot of regret about that ever since."

Byford stressed the importance of sticking to the timeline, not missing deadlines and for pressing the federal government for as much of the funding needed as possible, once an exact figure for the total cost of the redevelopment is established.

"It really will come down to how much can we get the feds to pay for in the first place, and only then, will you know what the gap is that's left to be paid," he said. "What we have ruled out is there will not be a surcharge on tickets. I said that before. Amtrak will not put a surcharge on tickets to pay for this. I've also said that I very much doubt that (NJ Transit) or the MTA would, because that's not how capital projects are paid for."

Byford almost apologetically noted that "we can't recreate the past." "What we can do is create something that is equally spectacular, albeit in a modern form," he explained. Byford called Penn a "very, very important hub for the region," and pointed out that there were 1,000 Amtrak employees based around the station as well as the four, soon to be five, railroads that use it.

Getting the MTA on board

NJ Transit, according to Byford, already has contributed financially to some of the preliminary work and been fully engaged in the redevelopment.

"MTA is slightly different," he said, noting recent friction with the agency.

The MTA had an oversight role when the state was to redevelop the station, which it lost when the federal government got involved, shifting control over to Byford and Amtrak. MTA CEO Janno Lieber said in a letter he sent to Byford and Amtrak in June that the agency was "cautiously optimistic" when the Trump administration took over. But he also was critical of its opaque selection process for a developer, saying it gave the "appearance of impropriety."

Moreover, the MTA has refused to sign a "collaboration agreement" designed to expedite decision-making in the redevelopment by giving the federal government even more oversight. That would undermine the latitude the MTA already has in making decisions on the station's design, granted under a contract in its lease with Amtrak for using the station. And that contract doesn't expire for another 160 years, according to the New York Times.

"The MTA, at the moment, is relying on their lease. They have a long-term lease with us. But we do engage with the MTA. They are invited to the swag meetings, the station working advisory groups," Byford explained. "They are invited to participate on the working groups, and we are having a discussion via the governor's office on how we might still yet achieve a memorandum agreement, because, you know, we want to work with them, we have to work with them, we need to work with them."

What's in a name?

Another potential roadblock is coming from President Donald Trump himself. Trump, according to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, would only release funding for the Gateway tunnel project on the condition that Penn and Dulles Airport in Washington be renamed after him. Schumer rejected the request, which Trump later said was actually the senator's suggestion. Schumer denied that he made such a recommendation. He also said last week that he would block any legislative measures that would put the president's name on the new Penn.

Gov. Hochul has said she doesn't care what the station is called, as long as the feds were handling the expense, and the redevelopment gets done. Byford has similarly said he's not concerned with name changes for Penn at the moment.

He concluded his remarks at the webinar with a reminder that "We've got to be ready for future passenger growth." That would include the planned Metro-North connection and completion of Gateway, which will modernize the two existing train tunnels under the Hudson River and add two more.

"We want the whole station to be world-class," he said. "I want this to be America's world-class station."