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NY Penn station. Why 30 years have not started improvements.

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Posted by MMLDelete on Thursday, December 5, 2019 1:27 PM

I don't really get it.

Will the Moyhihan Train Hall essentially be the lobby/grand hall/whatever for the entire complex? But many train travelers (all Amtrak passengers?) will still have to walk from there to/thru the existing shabby, cramped waiting room to get to their trains?

I guess what I'm mainly asking is: is the MTH the gateway to all the trains, or only some of them?

And re what I read about renovations in Penn Station, is that essentially sprucing up the old waiting area (which will become a walk-thru concourse for people using Amtrak trains)?

If I take Amtrak from Boston to NYC, how will my experience be different?

I guess I'm asking this: how will the MTH and the existing Penn Station relate to each other?

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Posted by NKP guy on Thursday, December 5, 2019 12:42 PM

   Madison Square Garden will be demolished...in about 18 or 20 years or so.

   As I recall from the New York Times, the owners of MSG were just finishing expensive renovations there a few years ago when the City started agitating again for them to leave the site.  As a compromise, and because the plans for the station weren't/haven't been finalized, and because funding wasn't/isn't solved, the owners of MSG were given a further 20 years' lease on the site.  The MSG needs time to find another location and the City needs time to plan for a new station.

   No one is seriously considering rebuilding the old station for a host of reasons.  Instead, there are plans to either:  1. design and build an all-new station, or 2.  strip off the walls of MSG and re-use the steel structure for a new station.  The second proposal not only would be less expensive and more innovative, it is visually more interesting.  Maybe someone here can post those two proposals.

   The tunnels situation is by far the more imperative project at this time.

   As for the demolished station, it wasn't that lovely, anyway.  It was impressive, yes, but really it was just a great heap of stones.  It didn't charm users as GCT did/does and was not particularly loved by New Yorkers the way GCT was from the start.  And no one then or now ever enjoyed the two-floors thing at Penn Station.

   In the meantime: Keep on scuttling.

 

 

 

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Posted by Shock Control on Thursday, December 5, 2019 10:14 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH

 

 
Shock Control

So is the movement to re-build the old Penn Station officially belly-up?

 

 

 
Rebuilding the old Pennsylvania Station (designed by Stanford White) would be unlikely since you would have to demolish Madison Square Garden.
 

Regardless of the practicality, there is/was a movement to rebuild the station.  Has it officially been 86ed?

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, December 5, 2019 10:03 AM

Shock Control

So is the movement to re-build the old Penn Station officially belly-up?

 
Rebuilding the old Pennsylvania Station (designed by Stanford White) would be unlikely since you would have to demolish Madison Square Garden.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Shock Control on Thursday, December 5, 2019 9:43 AM

So is the movement to re-build the old Penn Station officially belly-up?

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 9:23 AM

54light15
I thought the plan to convert the Farley post office to the Moynihan station was supposed to fix all that. Is that still happening?

Call it the Moynihan Train Hall.

Here is the SOM page for the project.

  They still show a completion date of 2020 for the work, but I believe it has been pushed back to some time in 2021.  If things are otherwise, please provide actual references.

Meanwhile, the improvements to "Penn Station" itself are also coming along, although I remain underwhelmed:

https://untappedcities.com/2019/06/19/photos-penn-station-renovation-begins-with-modern-new-entrances-along-7th-avenue/

 

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Posted by Gramp on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 2:40 AM

The parasites killed off the host.

Greener pastures elsewhere. 

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, December 2, 2019 2:37 PM

I thought the plan to convert the Farley post office to the Moynihan station was supposed to fix all that. Is that still happening? 

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, December 2, 2019 1:41 PM

Like any other 'public works' project it only takes two things to pull off.

Money and the will to accomplish the project, throw in engineering skills to implement it.

One thing without the other is failure.

 

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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NY Penn station. Why 30 years have not started improvements.
Posted by blue streak 1 on Monday, December 2, 2019 1:23 PM

Warning a long read.  Author goes into the reasons that it has been impossible to get NYPS improved.  Names such as Moses, Clinton, Cuomo, many others all had a hand of derailing plans and implementation. 

https://news.yahoo.com/why-holiday-travel-awful-130157035.html

 

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