New York Governor Kathy Hochul, local elected officials, and railroad partners  announced their united support for a vision of Penn Station Reconstruction. This announcement comes as the MTA and its railroad partners issued a Notice to Proceed to kick off preliminary design on a plan to transform the existing Penn Station into a world-class commuter and intercity transit hub.

“Penn Station is this hemisphere’s busiest transit hub, and New Yorkers deserve a world-class experience when they come to this station,” Governor Hochul said. “I am committed to driving this critical reconstruction project forward and continuing to work with our partners in the federal government to make our shared vision for a new Penn Station a reality.”

The Governor emphasized the urgency of fixing Penn Station and made clear that the project is advancing now. The design will be based on the Penn Station Master Plan, a joint planning process undertaken by the railroads. The Master Plan proposes a comprehensive set of solutions to the existing deficiencies of the station that impede safe and efficient movement of passengers, underutilization of property such as the mid-block taxiway, and takes into account foot traffic patterns to focus on improvements that will best serve users of the station, in a financially efficient way.

New York State has already appropriated $1.3 billion for Penn Station Reconstruction. Additional funding is anticipated via cost-sharing among the railroads that use the station and federal grant programs being aggressively pursued. The project is included on the Northeast Corridor Project Inventory priority list, making it eligible for Federal-State Partnership funding via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and an application for preliminary design was submitted in the Spring. These sources make it possible to fund Penn Station Reconstruction without immediate development proceeds from the Pennsylvania Station Area Civic and Land Use Improvement Project General Project Plan (GPP) adopted by Empire State Development.

While Penn Reconstruction can move forward without proceeds from the GPP, the GPP remains a tool that can be used in the future to support additional infrastructure development. In addition, New York State is committed to exploring opportunities for additional residential development in the Penn Station district.

Penn Reconstruction is both separate and distinct from the future Penn Station Expansion. Both station projects will be subject to federal environmental review. The potential acquisition of property on City Block 780 is not part of the Penn Station Reconstruction project and may only be considered pursuant to the federal environmental review process for Penn Station Expansion. This expansion of Penn Station is critical to realizing the additional capacity from the construction of a new Hudson River Tunnel under the Gateway Program.

To view the drawing click on  Penn_Renderings.pdf (ny.gov)

-via Press Release