Federal Department of Transportation officials say they’ll manage to accomplish in two years what has stalled out in fits and starts since the 1990s: remake Penn Station.
DOT officials are expected to announce that shovels will be in the ground to start rebuilding the Midtown transit hub by the end of 2027 — a schedule set to be formally presented at the station amid a whistle-stop tour Wednesday for Amtrak’s new high-speed Acela trains.
“I know there’s been a lot of talk about it for decades — a lot of different plans,” Deputy Secretary of Transportation Steven Bradbury told the Daily News Tuesday. “But we’re really committed, with the backing of the president and the full attention of [Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy], to prioritize this project.”
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Exterior view of the renovated Amtrak Seventh Ave. and 32nd St. Penn Station ADA entrance in New York on Nov. 19, 2023. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)
“We have a great advantage in the fact that it’s owned by Amtrak,” Bradbury added. “We have the ability to really take control of the project and really push it forward on ‘Trump time,’ if you will.”
The schedule — which comes less than five months after the federal government took over the project to rebuild the station from the MTA — is ambitious.
According to a draft timeline reviewed by The News, the government plans to structure the new Penn plan as a public-private partnership — and kick off the work with a $43 million federal grant toward preliminary engineering work.
It’s not yet clear what the federal attempt to remake Penn Station will cost. The price tag of the erstwhile MTA plan was estimated to be roughly $7 billion.
The feds will begin soliciting proposals from would-be developers in October, with the aim of selecting a master developer for the site next May.
The timeline calls for the design work and environmental review to commence thereafter, with construction beginning by the end of 2027.
Andy Byford, the former head of New York City Transit, who joined the Trump administration’s effort to rebuild the station earlier this year, acknowledged the timeline was “very challenging.”
“I would not have taken this on if I didn’t think it was possible,” Byford said.
“What gives me confidence is you’ve got absolute unity of vision between the White House, Secretary Duffy, USDOT and Amtrak,” he added. “We’re all determined to get New Yorkers the world-class station that they need and they deserve.”
What precisely a new Penn Station will look like, though, still remains up in the air.
As for whether Madison Square Garden — which is currently perched atop the bustling transit hub — would have to move as part of a redesign, Bradbury said the feds were “agnostic.”
Byford emphasized his desire to not simply “rebuild” Penn Station, but to transform it.
“I’m talking about top-to-bottom transformation of every aspect of Penn Station,” he said. “Let’s see what more capacity we can squeeze out of the existing station within the existing footprint by better utilization of the track and by exploring the potential for through-running.”
Byford said federal railway regulators would be studying how rail capacity at Penn would improve by allowing NJ Transit trains to continue on into Long Island and vice versa — a process known as through-running — which advocates say would reduce dwell time at the station and allow for more service.
In the meantime, plans to expand Penn Station’s footprint — specifically a controversial Amtrak plan to demolish “Block 780” to the south — are on hold, Byford said.
While specific design elements will depend on what proposal the government ultimately green-lights, Bradbury spoke to a few of the things the feds are looking for.
“What we want to see is a bright, open head house with a lot of light. We want to see an open concourse,” he said. “It needs to be the kind of station that America deserves for the heart of New York City and the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere.”
Byford likened his ideal design to the central stations in Kyoto or Tokyo: “spotlessly clean, truly excellent operations, very simple wayfinding and signage.”
“The amount of times that I’ve encountered people at street level who’ve asked me, ‘Excuse me, Sir, can you tell me where’s Penn Station?’” he said.
In that regard, the federal hopes for a new Penn Station — well-lit, open interiors with well-marked exteriors — are not terribly different from the plans that came before.
An MTA redesign — part of a state-negotiated plan to have developer Vornado build office towers above a new station — emphasized sunlit interiors and open public spaces. That plan stalled in the postpandemic commercial real estate lull.
The resulting limbo birthed several competing plans featuring grand entrances, including one from design firm ASTM, and another pushed by major Trump donor Tom Klingenstein.
Both plans could be in the mix as the feds receive proposals in the coming months. Bradbury said Washington is keeping an open mind.
“We’re not interested in just coming in and bigfooting this project and making it our vision,” he said. “We want to work with all the interested parties. We want to see what innovative proposals come in in response to our request.”
“The main thing is the timeline — that’s something we don’t want to compromise on,” he added. “We want to get the shovel in the ground by the end of 2027, if at all possible. We are doing this on Donald Trump’s time — that’s something I think New Yorker’s can very well appreciate.”
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