Moynihan Train Hall Comes To Life

From USA TODAY's article: "New York Penn Station was plagued with problems before COVID-19. Is the pandemic the time to fix them?"

By Colleen Wilson, Nov. 24, 2020

How to fix an overcrowded station

In addition to the small projects, there are a dizzying number of larger, but piecemeal plans to fix Penn and alleviate crowding. Some are still on drawing boards, some are in the works and one is nearing completion.

The furthest-along project is the long-awaited renovation of the Farley Post Office, which was built in 1913 across from Penn Station on Eighth Avenue. It is set to reopen before the end of the year and will be known as the Moynihan Train Hall.

The post office building, reminiscent of the original Penn Station because they were designed by the same firm, McKim, Mead & White, has platforms and access to most of the tracks in Penn. In its heyday, some trains that stopped at Penn had mail cars on the end that could be emptied at Farley while passengers deboarded at the terminal.

“The transit use, the capacity uses are going to get larger, and this dance between the pillars of a sports arena and a train station just does not make any sense,” said Samuel Turvey, chairman of ReThink NYC, a coalition that developed its own plan for a new Penn Station.

“Frankly, our leadership needs to go back to the drawing board and think more, because they’re going to wake up 10 years after building this and people are going to be just as irritated and angry at what’s happened," he said. "It's not going to work or be great. It’s going to continue to be awful.”

Read the full article here.