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Feds Remove New York’s MTA from Station Project – to Governor Hochul’s Delight

April 18 New York Post front page.

You read right. It is possible that the guy in the Oval Office who puts his name on everything from hotels to golf courses to steaks could someday have the busiest train station in the Western Hemisphere named for him. Hopefully, both he and I will be long gone by them.

One week ago the Trump administration made Amtrak the lead agency for the revitalization of Penn Station New York. US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that he had relieved New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority of that responsibility.

In addition, USDOT rescinded a $72 million planning grant to the MTA for station redesign and reduced funding to Amtrak for station expansion, at the same time saving $120 million. Duffy criticized MTA for a “history of waste, inefficiency, and mismanagement” and said a “new approach” was called for to “ensure every dollar is spent wisely to create a transit hub all Americans can take pride in.”

If Trump and Duffy thought taking away Penn Station was a way to stick it to New York, Gov. Cathy Hochul wasn’t having it. “This is a major victory for New Yorkers,” she said, “and the use of federal funds will save New York taxpayers $1.3 billion that would have otherwise been necessary for this project.” That means New York will save more than ten dollars for every dollar Washington saves.

“In multiple meetings with President Trump, I requested that the federal government fund the long-overdue overhaul of Penn Station,” Hochul said. “Clearly that effort has been successful, and I want to thank the president and Secretary Duffy for taking on the sole responsibility to deliver the beautiful new $7 billion station that New Yorkers deserve.”

More than four years of planning led by Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, goes down the drain, her vision calling for a 250,000 square foot single-level train hall cast aside. Amtrak, which fired its CEO at Trump’s insistence last month, in all likelihood will be taking its direction from the White House and USDOT.

Penn Station redevelopment has two parts: the tracks trains run on and their supporting infrastructure, and the building above the railroad. Previously, Amtrak was in charge of the former, MTA the latter. Putting Amtrak in charge of both programs should make it easier to work from a shared vision for what the station should be that is logistically efficient and aesthetically pleasing.

Separately, Amtrak is developing several infrastructure projects under the Gateway Program, to upgrade the Northeast Corridor between Newark and New York. After two new tunnels under the Hudson River are activated and the existing tubes repaired, the NEC’s capacity between Penn Station and New Jersey will double sometime around 2038.

Amtrak says it needs to expand Penn Station’s capacity to accommodate the additional trains. It proposes to build an annex under the block immediately to the station’s south. The estimated cost is $16.7 billion. However, the plan has been met with heavy community opposition since it would require relocating many residents and small businesses.

This brings the price for expanding Penn Station and building a new headhouse to almost $24 billion, money the government doesn’t have sitting around and isn’t likely to raise. If Trump and Duffy think the 520-mile, $100 billion California High Speed Rail and the $40 billion, 240-mile Texas High Speed Rail projects are wasteful how could they justify spending $24 million on a single railroad station?

If Madison Square Garden could be relocated elsewhere Amtrak could probably increase Penn Station’s capacity for a lot less money and without having to expand the station’s footprint. However, MSG’s owner, James Dolan, does not want to move the arena.

Penn Station’s problems of function and form go back to the design of the original complex, which the Pennsylvania Railroad opened in 1910 and demolished during the mid-1960s. In an article on the website StreetsblogNYC, reporter Nolan Hicks delved into what would be needed to turn it a “world-class” facility.

First function: The station’s platforms, which date to 1910, are too narrow to accommodate today’s passenger loads. They were designed for 100 to 200 riders going to Washington or Chicago, not the 1,000-plus taking a rush hour Trenton local. Consequently, trains arriving must be emptied before outbound passengers can board. This results in longer station dwell times, which means fewer trains can arrive and depart, Hicks explained.

As to form, the low ceiling and sense of claustrophobia found in the Amtrak and NJ Transit wings resulted from placing Madison Square Garden and the Two Penn Plaza office building where the headhouse designed by McKim, Mead & White once stood. Hundreds of heavy concrete columns were required to keep these structures from collapsing onto the tracks (and trains and people) below. (MTA replaced the low ceiling in the Long Island Rail Road wing.)

Amtrak’s ownership of Penn Station is an accident of history. The railroad was created by a 1970 act of Congress to relieve US railroads of their money-losing intercity passenger operations. Penn Central, the successor to the PRR, which filed for bankruptcy protection the same year, was the law’s primary beneficiary.

However, Penn Central’s condition was too dire for a successful reorganization. This led Congress to create another railroad, Conrail, which acquired Penn Central and five other bankrupt Northeast lines. The authorizing legislation transferred the Northeast Corridor, including Penn Station, from Penn Central to Amtrak in 1976.

Although it owns the property, Amtrak accounts for just 10 percent of the 600,000 people who pass through Penn Station every day. Two-thirds use MTA operations – Long Island Rail Road, New York City Transit, or both. NJ Transit accounts for the rest. A new player will soon enter the mix, Metro North, which is preparing to run trains off its New Haven Line into Penn Station in 2028.

Each of these railroads operate differently. Long Island trains head west to the Hudson Yards for servicing after passengers unload. Most Amtrak trains run through to Boston or Washington or are turned at Sunnyside Yard, in the eponymous neighborhood of Queens. NJ Transit turns many of its trains on four stub tracks on Penn Station’s south side (tracks 1 – 4), which can take upwards of 20 minutes.

Duffy, the Federal Railroad Administration, and Amtrak need to find a better – and more affordable – solution to Penn Station’s capacity issues than tearing down a city block to build more tracks. At the same time, officials need to persuade Jimmy Dolan to move Madison Square Garden. It’s a hard sell since MSG’s location has the best transit access in the city.

The answer may lie in offering the next best location, across Seventh Avenue where Vornado Realty recently demolished the old Hotel Pennsylvania. Such a proposal was made by the Grand Penn Community Alliance, an entity supported by Thomas Klingenstein, a hedge fund manager who is also a major donor to Trump’s campaigns.

In March, Klingenstein published an op-ed on his website titled “Only Trump Can Make Penn Station Great Again.” He believes restoring the original station’s façade would appeal to the President’s preference for classical architecture. With the president on board Jim Dolan could be more receptive to moving. “If there’s one person on planet Earth that can talk to Jim Dolan, it’s Donald Trump,” Grand Penn architect Alexander Washburn told the New York Post.

New Yorkers have clamored for a station worthy of their city ever since the original Pennsylvania Station was demolished. But building a beautiful new station above ground without fixing the problems below will be throwing money down the drain. Rail operations will still be problematic, capacity will still be constrained, and passengers will continue to be herded onto narrow platforms to board their trains,

I have no way of knowing what Trump & Co. will do but putting Penn Station’s future in the hands of one entity rather than two is a wise move, even if it takes us back to square one.