(rshsdepot) New Penn Station, New York

[jdent1_@_optonline.net]

New Jersey Transit Will Consider Occupying New Station in Midtown

September 24, 2004
 By MICHAEL LUO 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey awarded $10
million to New Jersey Transit yesterday to study how it
might extend its current platforms in Pennsylvania Station
into a new station in the James A. Farley post office
building. The work could pave the way for the transit
agency to become the new station's main tenant, instead of
Amtrak. 

Plans to build a grand railroad hub in the landmark Farley
post office building, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and
31st and 33rd Streets in Manhattan, have been in the making
for more than a decade, only to be delayed time and time
again. 

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who died last year, was
the project's main advocate, calling for the city to redeem
itself after the original Pennsylvania Station, a
neo-Classical masterpiece designed by McKim, Mead & White,
was torn down in the 1960's. The new station in the post
office, to be named for Senator Moynihan, would free up
space in the crowded Penn Station, just across Eighth
Avenue. 

Recently, Amtrak, long the station's intended tenant,
declared it would not pay any rent if it moved into the
space from its current home in the existing Penn Station,
which it owns, because of continuing financial problems.
That left officials with the Empire State Development
Corporation, which oversees the project through its
subsidiary, the Moynihan Station Redevelopment Corporation,
casting about for alternatives. 

"We have said that this project will not be stopped," said
Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Empire State
Development Corporation and vice chairman of the Port
Authority's board. "Or we would lose more than $300 million
in federal aid." 

Mr. Gargano said yesterday that he was not bothered by
Amtrak's change of heart, calling the national railroad "a
minor player" in Penn Station and pointing out that it
provides only about 28,000 of the 500,000 people who use
Penn Station daily. 

New Jersey Transit, which shares use of Penn Station with
Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, represents a logical
fallback because its ridership has been exploding and its
concourses have become increasingly crowded. The Long
Island Rail Road operates more than half the trains that
use Penn Station; New Jersey Transit accounts for about a
third; and Amtrak, 16 percent. 

To help it move more people into Manhattan, New Jersey
Transit has been working on plans to build a new tunnel
under the Hudson River that would allow it to double the
number of trains into Penn Station. But that project is
years away from completion. In the short term, the transit
agency's planners have been searching for solutions to
their crowding problems. 

The Port Authority's money will pay for preliminary design
and engineering work on building a new central pedestrian
corridor that would give New Jersey Transit riders another
option for getting up from the tracks and out of the
current station. The money will also pay for preliminary
work on building a new western corridor that would connect
passengers to the new Moynihan Station, as well as
extending the platforms on New Jersey Transit's current
tracks into the Farley Building. 

"We're trying to get more trains and people into the
existing Penn Station," said Richard T. Roberts, the
transit agency's chief planner. The platform extension
would allow dispatchers to send longer trains, carrying
more people, into the station. But Mr. Roberts said New
Jersey Transit officials also want to make sure customers
have connections to Moynihan Station. 

Lynn Bowersox, assistant executive director of New Jersey
Transit, said no decisions had been made yet on whether the
agency would move completely into the new station, split
its ticketing and waiting areas between the old and new
stations, or not move at all. For many of its riders who
work on the East Side, the agency's current location closer
to Seventh Avenue is more convenient. 

"Nothing's off the table," Ms. Bowersox said. 

Mr. Gargano
said yesterday that it was also possible that the Long
Island Rail Road could become a tenant in the new station
as well, although officials there had previously said they
were not interested in moving into Moynihan Station. 

Mr. Gargano said he spoke last week with Peter S. Kalikow,
chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
about the possibility and was told that the authority would
look into it. 

Yesterday, Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority, said,
"We are exploring our options at the Farley Building," and
added, "Nothing has been ruled in or out." 

The project, however, has the potential of competing for
federal money and attention with some of the transportation
authority's main building priorities: creating a link for
the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central Terminal and
constructing the Second Avenue subway. 

Despite the questions about who will occupy the station,
Mr. Gargano said that a request for proposals on commercial
use of the space from developers will be sent out in
October and that an award should be made by January. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/nyregion/24port.html?ex=1097020164&ei=1&en=dc89e92801b4d215

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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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