Re: (rshsdepot) Amtrak Is Slow to Embrace New Pennsylvania Station

[CoolGuy127_@_aol.com]

In a message dated 5/28/2004 8:38:15 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
brwagenblast_@_comcast.net writes:
After years of delays, plans for a grand, new Pennsylvania Station built
within the city's main post office building are being muddied by demands
from Amtrak, the intended tenant, that it be allowed to use the space
without paying any rent.
======================

    I'm glad to hear that Amtrak is taking this position.

    In my view, this "grand new" station is misplaced and misconceived.  As 
the New York Times article points out, it's located in the wrong place -- on 
the "wrong side of the tracks."  People using Penn Station want to go east, 
towards Seventh Avenue, while the new station would be between Eighth and Ninth 
Avenues.  Access to the station would be inconveniently located on 31st and 33rd 
Streets, both relatively narrow, one-way streets.  And access to the train 
platforms will also be less convenient, as they would be accessed from their 
west end -- like a stub-end station -- rather than from the center, as they 
presently are accessed.

    Moreover, the arguments that the new station would restore the glory of 
the old Pennsylvania Station by incorporating the landmark General Post Office 
Building are also misplaced.  The only grand interior space in the GPO 
Building is the post office lobby, and the intent is to retain that for postal use.  
The new station will require the demolition of the center portion of this 
landmark building and its replacement by a modern edifice that will clash with the 
classic architecture of the Post Office Building. 

    The real answer is to demolish the ugly and outmoded Madison Square 
Garden on top of the existing station and to rebuild a glorious new station on the 
location of the existing Penn Station.  Hopefully, Amtrak's position -- which 
I fully support -- will cause this ill-conceived plan to convert the General 
Post Office into a train station to be abandoned entirely.

            Daniel Chazin
            Teaneck, NJ

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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