[PRR-talk] Penn Station

[bobsin at verizon.net]

On 2 Feb 2008 at 12:17, William Bigler wrote:

> A few to several years ago I remember reading of plans to move Penn
> Station across the street in the Farleigh Post Office building, but
> haven't seen anything about this for a few to several years.  Anyone
> know whether this plan is still alive or what the status is?

The general idea was to make part of the Post Office into a grand concourse to supplement 
the existing maze of subterranean corridors in use today on the site of the original Penn 
Station; and the external architecture of the Post Office is similar to the original Penn Station.   
It was to be called the Moynihan Station, after the late US senator who championed the idea.

The plan is still active but has become enmeshed of late with plans to possibly move 
Madison Square Garden out of the original Penn Station site and possibly locate it on the 
west end of the Post Office blocks (31-33 St, 8-9 Av); and plans to develop the air rights over 
the tracks west of 9 Av and/or the Long Island Rail Road's layup yard even further west.  
Some of the recent proposals have been for a new Penn Station concourse on the original 
site, so the debate rages on.

At some point Amtrak decided that there was not much in it for them to be part of the new 
station plan, and NJ Transit I believe became the lead tenant for the proposed Moynihan 
Station.  NJT is also moving ahead with plans for two new North River tunnels and a low level 
station under 34 St between 8th and 8th Avenues, as track capacity has become today's limit 
on the number of rush hour trains that can operate, even with the new no-fixed-signals-
between-interlockings operation between Hudson and Penn Station.  Some advocacy groups 
are opposed to NJT's current plan, saying that NJT should not have dropped original plans 
for track connections from their new tunnels to the current station, and should extend their 
new line to Grand Central Terminal. A high level bridge, probably four tracks, to replace the 
Portal movable bridge over the Hackensack River is also in planning stages.  And this will 
lead to the need for more tracks between Portal and Dock.

So things are moving, albeit two steps forward, one step back.  The lesson from the early 
20th Century was that Grand Central with its 67 tracks was too big, but Penn Station with its 
21 was definitely too small, at least for today's needs.

John Bobsin