Two railroads argue over the future of the nation’s busiest station as its present remains a basement with opinions
Penn Station Overhaul Sparks Feud Between Agencies Who Agree Only That It Is Bad
NEW YORK – There is broad consensus in the region that Pennsylvania Station, a low-ceilinged maze beneath an arena, should be made into something a human being would choose to enter. The disagreement is over who gets to do it. Public radio’s transportation reporting has followed the dispute under the headline Penn Station overhaul sparks feud between MTA and Amtrak, the latest chapter in a decades-long saga of renderings, announcements and ribbon-cuttings for things that were later un-announced.
Commuters have taken the news in stride, in the sense that they were already striding, quickly, toward track 17, which had just been posted. “They are fighting about who fixes it?” said Gerald Pisciotta, an insurance adjuster from Massapequa, not slowing down. “I have been coming through here since 1994. It has been ‘about to be fixed’ the whole time. My kids were born. My kids graduated. There is a new rendering every five years with sunlight in it. I have never seen the sunlight. I have seen the rendering.”
The Positions
The 34th Street Mediation Circle for Railroads That Share a Basement, a group of regular commuters who offered to arbitrate, has summarized the dispute as it understands it:
- One railroad owns the station
- Another railroad brings most of the passengers
- A third railroad from across the river would like to be included
- An arena sits on top and would prefer not to be discussed
- Everyone has a plan, and every plan begins by moving someone else
Circle moderator Paulette Sorrentino said the group’s sessions have been productive. “We got both sides to agree the ceiling is too low,” she said. “That took two meetings. We are now on signage. I expect to be on signage until I retire.”
Life in the Station As It Is
While the future is negotiated, the present continues. Riders gather under a departure board and watch it with the focus of gamblers. When a track number appears, several hundred people turn at once and funnel into a stairway built for a dozen. Veterans do not wait for the board. They stand near the track they suspect and read the faces of the staff.
The agencies involved are not short of other demands. Local coverage of transit leadership describes a capital wish list running past 68 billion dollars and a subway expansion that will require seizing properties. Sorrentino said the Circle understands the constraints. “Everyone is broke and everything is old,” she said. “But they found the money to argue. Arguing is not free. There are consultants in that argument. I have seen the lanyards.”
Navigation by Instinct
A survey of 700 Penn Station users found that 91 percent have been lost in it, 64 percent navigate by landmarks such as “the pretzel place” and “where the puddle is,” and 38 percent find the Seventh Avenue exit by following the smell of roasted nuts. Twelve percent said they once emerged onto the wrong avenue and simply started a new life there.
Tourists fare worst. A family from Ohio was observed standing motionless near the Long Island concourse for eleven minutes. They were looking for the grand hall they had seen in an old photograph. A commuter gently told them it was demolished in 1963. The father took off his cap.
The New Hall Across the Street
A handsome train hall with a glass roof did open across Eighth Avenue a few years ago, and travelers on one railroad use it happily. Riders on the others note that it is lovely, that it does not serve their trains, and that they can see it from the old station “like a nice restaurant you walk past on the way to the bus.”
Renderings Through the Ages
The Circle maintains an archive of every proposed redesign. Members count at least nine since the 1990s. Each features tall windows, small trees and well-dressed people standing far apart. “The people in the pictures are never running,” Pisciotta observed. “That is how you know it is not real. Nobody in Penn Station has ever stood still on purpose.”
A Commuter Proposal
The Circle has submitted its own plan, which fits on an index card. It asks for a ceiling one can stand under, signs that agree with each other, and a board that announces the track more than ninety seconds before departure. It does not specify which agency should do it. “We do not care whose name is on the plaque,” Sorrentino said. “Put both. Put mine. Just raise the roof.”
Britain Offers Euston as a Cautionary Tale
The quarrel is watched with fellow feeling in the United Kingdom, where a London terminus has been “about to be rebuilt” for the length of a career. The London Prat’s UK satirical news on railway stations described Euston’s concourse as “a waiting room for a decision.” Its UK satirical news about feuding agencies reminded New Yorkers that the one certainty of any station overhaul is a temporary hoarding that outlives everyone.
Pisciotta made the 5:48 with forty seconds to spare. He found a seat, opened a newspaper and saw the newest rendering on page six. There was sunlight in it. He looked at it for a while. Bohiney Magazine missed the train and is filing this from the pretzel place.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/