Article: The Crisis at Penn Station

[Union Tpke]

I just wrote this article about the crisis at Penn Station, and I thought that this might be of interest.

Here is the link.

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

Penn Station is the busiest rail station in the Western Hemisphere. It serves about 650,000 daily passengers on Amtrak, and two of the three commuter rail systems in the New York City Metropolitan Area, New Jersey Transit, and the Long Island Rail Road. Built between 1901 and 1910, the station was built in the Beaux-Arts style for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and it was considered to be a masterpiece, and it was a grand entryway to the city, only rivaled by Grand Central, which opened in 1913 for the rival New York Central Railroad. The station opened in conjunction with the two North Tunnels under the Hudson River, providing the first rail traffic across the Hudson. Previously, all railroads in New Jersey, including the Pennsy, had terminals on the Hudson, requiring passengers to transfer to a ferry to continue their journeys. The Pennsy, with the tunnels and Penn Station had a leg up over its competitors. However, in 1963, the beautiful station building was demolished, to be replaced by Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden. This demolition caused international outrage, and as a result of it and its deplored replacement, Grand Central and other important landmarks throughout the country were protected.