Penn Station or Small Station

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

New York’s Penn Station is rail hub as ant colony: tight-cornered, winding and grimly subterranean. Like ants, 600,000 passengers per weekday course through it, pausing only to stare at an overhead information board until their departure track is revealed and then, toward that specified bowel, they descend.

 

 

 

Even the transit executives who run the place understand that it needs a makeover: they’ve hired Los Angeles construction firm Aecom to draft a renovation plan, expected by the end of the year, called ”Penn Station Vision.” There’s talk of moving back walls, upgrading signs and improving the lighting. But that won’t happen until Amtrak decamps across Eighth Avenue into a new space at the Farley Post Office, which is at least four years away

 

 

That’s the question I set out to answer with Nancy Solomon, an editor at WNYC who’s been commuting from New Jersey to the West Side of Manhattan through Penn Station for more than ten years. Our tour of the station on a sweltering summer afternoon revealed a bi-level, nine-acre public space that, in some places, barely functions. “The station is doing what it was never, ever designed to do, which is accommodate more than a half-million commuters,” says Ben Cornelius, an Amtrak worker and TN reader who toiled in Penn Station for six years. “It was designed to be a long-haul, long-distance train station, not a commuter barn.”

 

 

 

 

video is availible on the link too.

 

 

http://transportatio...iest-train-hub/

 

courtesy of transportationnation.org

 

IMO I agree that Penn Station isnt capable of half a million riders

[lilbluefoxie]

Penn is more functional than stylish, you go there not to hang out but to ride your train home, or to exit there to your final destination in the city

[Joel Up Front]

Never mind the crowds, even off-peak, that form around the waiting area. If I was going to be stuck there I'd rather be stuck in a giant area than a cramped basement.

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

IMO In terms of physical appearance, it looks fine it does not need a makeover. theres not much you can do to give it a makeover anyway.

[lilbluefoxie]

Penn Station has its own unique things, such as the stampede when the track is announced, and everyone starts running down the stairs rushing to get a seat. Grand Central doesnt have that since the track assignments are done much further in advanced.

[Quill Depot]

Penn Station is a mess… why can't it remain a mess. The LIRR trains to Grand Central may fix this.

[Truckie]

Penn Station has its own unique things, such as the stampede when the track is announced, and everyone starts running down the stairs rushing to get a seat. Grand Central doesnt have that since the track assignments are done much further in advanced.

 

 

Even though the track assignments are done in advance, there's still the problem of the quick turn arounds some trains make and the problem of RTC sometimes not giving the yard crews at GCT a signal to come out of the yard to a platform. These issues are enough for crowds to form and create a rush as soon as the doors open.

[Q10 Airport]

I love the fantasy vision but this will never happen. Money will be an obstacle and we will be happily stuck with our stampedes at Penn Station.

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

The fact that it's underground makes it unique too.

[VWM]

PENN STATION NEEDS BENCHES.

[N4 Via Merrick Rd]

PENN STATION NEEDS BENCHES.

 

Get there on time and get there in advanced.

[Joel Up Front]

There's still nowhere to sit otherwise unless you feel like trekking into the Amtrak concourse and even there there aren't many places to sit. The waiting room is great but you'll still hit crowds near the platforms.

[Vistausss]

The fact that it's underground makes it unique too.

 

 

I can think of a dozen stations around the world that are big and underground. Not really that unique.

 

Penn Station is a mess… why can't it remain a mess. The LIRR trains to Grand Central may fix this.

 

 

I don't think so. LIRR to GCT is only to serve Long Island folks to have a one seat ride to GCT and even then most of the branches will still terminate at Penn.

[pjbr40]

I think this would never happen if they didn't put Madison Square Garden on top of the station. Whoever idea that was in past really screw the future.

[Guest Lance]

You've got to remember that when MSG and the cracker box known as Penn Station was built, the world, as it pertains to rail transit, was a very different place. Rail transportation as a whole was on a serious decline and by the time Old Pennsylvania was torn down in the '60s, transportation by road was king and air travel was up and coming real fast. All of the major rail companies that existed at the time were either in bankruptcy or near it. They were in desperate need of cash and in the case of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the then-owners of NY Penn Station, they decided to sell land space above ground level. I highly doubt that anyone around that time could've foreseen the explosion of rail transit that would happen over the following 40-50 years.