[Guest Blog] New York City Penn Station Reconstruction

By Al Papp, Former Rail Passengers Council member from New Jersey

April 18th's RPA "Hotline" explained the Amtrak/FRA takeover of the long simmering New York City Penn Station reconstruction. The upside is that the station is seriously in play; the downside is that no one can predict its outcome. So it's worth some time to explore the candid reactions of New York State's Governor Hochul and that of the MTA's Chair and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Janno Lieber, as well as to detail the four current architectural plans for the station's rebuilding.

State and New York City replies to the FRA and Amtrak takeover:

While Governor Hochul is at odds with President Trump over his rejection of Congestion Pricing, she is positively ecstatic about being relieved of a potential $7 billion outlay for the rebuilding of New York City's Penn Station. How ecstatic? Well now, she's even willing to rename the new station in honor of...wait for it... President Donald J. Trump! She continued, saying, "If he puts $7 billion into it? Who knows?" "It would not be my favorite thing, but it'll save us $1.3 billion that I'm not planning to spend, that can help me manage other costs."

Lieber appeared on the Brian Lehrer show, WNYC (National Public Radio) on Friday, April 25th. MTA is a NYP tenant, "So, we fixed up the portion of the station that our riders use the most and that we control. It's part of our lease." "But the federal government, the new administration came in, and they said you can't do this. We're giving it to Amtrak." As riders well know and, Lieber voiced, "...the rest of Penn Station that we haven't fixed up is kind of a dump, the areas should be used for passengers and public use."

Four plans to rebuild Penn Station:

The currently available four proposed plans are: 1.) the MTA has endorsed the one Governor Hochul showed in June; 2, 2024; 2.) the ReThinkNYC has the updated 1910 McKim, Mead and White classic design; 3.) ASTM, an Italian Company, has proposed a public/private partnership with Amtrak; and 4.) the one is from New York State and the Grand Penn Community Alliance. This latter is a well funded private group led by the architect and urban designer Alexandros Washburn, who has been involved in Amtrak's Moynihan Train Hall. Both the ReThink and the Alliance designs are classical, while the MTA and ASTM proposals are variations of the bland 1960s glass curtain wall architecture that is prevalent in so many newer buildings around the nation. Both are below street level, similar to the current station, and have a mid-block underground skylight lit concourse located where the original 1910 station had its Main Hall. The reason for the subterranean concourse in these two designs is due to the fact that they assume that the existing Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza remain in place where they are. The MTA design incorporates a low glass wall structure on Eighth Avenue to give the new building "more of a presence," but once one goes through the entrance, the Garden physically blocks the way and the traveler must immediately go down an escalator to the lower underground concourse, the same way you now enter Moynihan Train Hall from Eighth Avenue, that is by going down and around the massive stairs leading to the Main Post Office mezzanine. The ASTM design would pay the owner Dolans $500 million to remove half a floor, so travelers could enter immediately below the Garden from Eighth Avenue without any impediment; however, this would necessitate the removal of many of the supporting columns holding up the Garden and the implementation of what is called "transfer beams" to move building support to the perimeter of the building. It's been assessed that doing this while Penn Station remains operating could be difficult and costly.

Earlier on WNYC, on Friday, April 18th, reporter Steven Nissen noted that the feds are thinking of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) for the rebuilding activity and opined that Amtrak would place emphasis on Penn Station's track expansion. However, this flies in the face of Governor Hochul's proclamation to reject the "Block 780" plan. (The "Block 780" plan which would add six or more stub-end tracks south of track 1 to accommodate more NJ Transit services thereby freeing up additional through center tracks for Amtrak through train operation on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from south of Newark to north of New York City as well as provide additional space for planned Metro-North Connecticut commuter services.) Now, here's the interesting part of the reporter's comments. He said that President Trump has mentioned that any new federal buildings should be erected in the "classic" style. As one who has lamented the wanton destruction of the "classic" New Station in the early 1960s, and who photographed the remnant using 120 color sides (Ektachrome and Kodachrome) prior to the tragic demolition, the architecture of this "new" Penn Station has taken on added significance.

Two should be on the short list:

For whatever it's worth, from my perspective, the only way to achieve a world-class station is to remove Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza and reconstruct the new Penn Station above ground - not as a basement facility as in the MTA and ASTM proposals. Fortunately, as it happens, both the ReThink and Alliance proposals accomplish this. For a pictorial representation of the classic ReThinkNYC restoration of Penn Station, go here: https://www.rethinkpennstationnyc.org/ This is the design that most replicates the original 1910 station and which, personally, I would like to see constructed. The ReThink design incorporates a magnificent glass and steel train shed which rises above a granite exterior facing on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 34th Streets and is pictured on its website. The Grand Penn Community Alliance design is not too shabby either (https://grandpenn.org/). As you can see, there is a full exterior, similar to the original one facing Seventh Avenue, but it differs from the ReThink plan by placing an urban park halfway between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 34th Streets. The fly in the ointment for both of these is, of course, removing both Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza. The Dolans received a five-year renewal to operate MSG from the New York City Council in 2023 which allowed them to postpone moving the Garden to another location. Two Penn Plaza is another story entirely. Vornado Realty owns much of the property in and around Penn Station (called the "Penn Vornado Campus") and negotiating for removal of Two Penn Plaza between the real estate company and local city officials has yet to be seriously discussed.