The Pennsylvania Station is a critical asset to the Northeast Corridor operation. In addition to being a major hub to the NEC, this large station located in New York City is still an Amtrak entity. Twenty years ago, they realized they had the original 1910 station with the architecture removed but the standing infrastructure was still apparent. Once realized, they also observed that this station would not be able to obtain the increased business in commuter rail and continual but gradual increase in city rail. Unfortunately, Penn Station was just not big enough for the business it was getting.
The Problem
Penn Station is crowded all the time. The claustrophobia of this station is so unmanageable that it causes an incapability to sustain the offload and on-load that comes from the trains traveling through Northeast Corridor. In order to accomplish this, it would take at least fifteen minutes, which is an extensive amount of time for a train to be stationary. Majority of the time, many passengers on these trains are traveling through New York and not to it as a destination. To gain one minute of increased train speed, it would cost millions of dollars. This expense would be a process of engineering a more efficient track or curve for the train to travel on. All the AMTRAK trains can go faster than the rate they travel now, but the tracks and right or way restrict the trains’ abilities to reach top speed.
The conversion project for this station is a matter of incremental improvements on the rail road instead of just starting from scratch due to the necessity of the station being used at all times. When additional trains come through New York to Penn Station, there are no allowance for passengers and no space for them to come into Penn Station. This is one of the reasons AMTRAK is looking for an alternative solution; they cannot afford to cut down Penn’s current capacity during the time of construction and renovation . Initially, they wanted to rebuild Penn Station by taking out portions of it in stated, but this wouldn’t be possible if they wanted business to continue at the same time.
Moynihan Station Project
That was when the Moynihan Station Project was thought of, acting as a solution to the proble of Penn Station. It was at first an AMTRAK project, and then the state of New York took over in 1995. They created the Empire State Development Corporation, which handles numerous public projects. Moynihan Station Development Corporation, a component of this project, consists of a five person project team and a many people working with them under contract, for example the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. This authority is the construction management team. Fred Bartoli, the man our learning cluster met with on January 14, is the project developer of the conversion project. He has been on the project for nine years and explained the specifics of the project and what exactly is going to happen. The Federal Post Office building is going to be converted into another building that has access to the tracks underground. This will allow people to be dispersed between the two buildings eliminating crowdedness and over capacity. Moynihan Station is going to be developed in phases. This station is presently in phase one and will be completed and opened in 2016, which the funding grant requires.
First Phase
They are constructing the 1st phase of the project underneath the Post Office Building. First phase consists of connections between Penn Station, 11 train platforms below, and the Post Office Building. This phase is the underground aspect of the project costing about $300 billion total and funded gradually over time. The goal is to create at least seven more tracks. There currently21 tracks, 1500 passengers per train and 200 trains per platform.
Second Phase
The 2nd phase is the grand concourse of the railroad station. There will be above ground work with the design of the post office. Architects will be recreating grandeur with elements of light, using natural light. The building on top of the station will be of mixed use with shops, restaurants, possibly apartments, and hotels.
The Support
Senator Moynihan wanted to restore some of the greatness of New York. He received a large amount of federal money to restore Hell Gate Bridge, a large arch railroad bridge. That’s how his name became attached to this project. This project has had its up and downs due to the lack of funding and transportation plan. President Clinton dedicated the project and then Senator Obama made this one of his key projects for the stimulus program, in which some of that money went to what’s under construction right now. The post office has many air rights that they can sell for other buildings to use to escalate their height which is helping pay for the project. There is a private development interest for the above ground commercial aspect. Even with all of this support, they are still trying to get funding for phase two. The total cost for this complete project is 1.2 billion dollars.
The Outcome
The Moynihan Station project will have multiple benefits excluding economically and architecturally. This poject is predicted to provide approximately 3,300 jobs and fifty million dollars from tax revenue due to the commercial, residential, and developmental addition to the Moynihan Station project. There would be an increase of productivity and savings due to the more dependable and accomadating travel into Penn and Moynihan station. Real estate values and taxes near the station would increase. The rate of construction of the Hudson Yards District, which is located from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River and 28th Streeth to 42nd Street , would increase and take place of the Farely Building. The construction of Moynihan Station has the potentional to help develop the areas around it. It will act as a foundation for an east-west corridor on 32nd street causing a spread of development along the midtown of New York City (Moynihan et al. 2005).
NYC Penn Station & Moynihan Station Project Project
Out With The Old, In With The New
Penn Station & Moynihan Station Project 30
An Informational Interview With Fred Bartoli