If you have ever visited busy Penn Station then you know why some travelers refer to it as “the pit.” I have heard others refer to it as a “cesspool of commuters,” though I wouldn’t go that far. I’ve been to the nation’s busiest train station several times and yes, it’s not as opulent as Grand Central Terminal’s majestic concourse, but it’s not a complete turn off either.
Penn Station is home to Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, Long Island Rail Road trains and half a dozen subway lines, which means if you are traveling to and from New York City it is virtually impossible to avoid stepping foot in the place.
Is it in need of a major renovation? Undoubtedly. And after a decade of false starts it might finally be on the road to getting one. A $14 billion plan is currently moving forward to rebuild the station and the rundown neighborhood surrounding it. However, the plan hinges on Madison Square Garden agreeing to sell its arena on the spot where the original station stood, and move into an annex in the city’s landmark post office building across the street.
Tentative plans call for the James A. Farley Post Office to house a grand atrium with glass ceilings that would allow natural sunlight to pour in. Meanwhile, the main station would provide more space for riders, along with spruced up waiting areas and better stores and restaurants. In addition, more than 5 million square feet of commercial and retail space would be built around Penn Station, in a new city business district similar to one that enlivened the area around Grand Central when it was undergoing its massive redevelopment.
Plans to update Penn Station and the area around it have been talked about for more than a decade, and designs of the main concourse have been revised for the past eight years. So it comes as no surprise that the more than 550,000 passengers (that’s more people than use all three New York City–area airports put together) who pass through the station each day, aren’t expecting big changes anytime soon—-despite the fact that city officials are now saying that the redevelopment plan is almost a done deal.
Have you been to Penn Station? What are your opinions of it?
Planning a trip to New York? Check out these other Big Apple-related articles:
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Little People in the Big Apple: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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