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[–><!–>Countless ideas for making Penn Station grander and more commuter-friendly have been floated and shelved over the decades. The conversion of the James A. Farley Building across Eighth Avenue into Moynihan Hall for passengers was an exception, if one that ran wildly over budget and beyond schedule. But Moynihan, named for the senator, is mostly ornamental. With each attempt to restart work on the larger underground station, progress has been torpedoed by a political rivalry or a powerful billionaire or infighting among transit agencies with their own priorities.–><!–>
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[–><!–>The station itself, sitting beneath Madison Square Garden, is owned and controlled by Amtrak, the national passenger railroad.–><!–>
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[–><!–>But its primary users are two state-run transit agencies: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the Long Island Rail Road in New York, and NJ Transit. Each has exclusive use of some tracks and platforms.–><!–>
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[–><!–>But they must share most of the tracks and platforms with Amtrak, which has the ultimate say over train movements in and out of the station.–><!–>
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Modern Structural Problems
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[–><!–>Right now, Amtrak is focused on the construction of a new two-track rail tunnel under the Hudson River, a $16 billion project known as Gateway. (This fall, the Trump administration suspended federal funding for the project and threatened to terminate it in an apparent attempt to pressure Democrats amid a government shutdown.)–><!–>
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[–><!–>The Garden’s owners, who own the air rights for any development above the station, have resisted recent attempts to arrange the arena’s relocation. In 2023, city officials renewed the Garden’s operating permit for an additional five years.–><!–>
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Before and After
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A Litany of Promises
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[–><!–>But the plan met opposition from preservationists. Mr. Dolan wanted to back out, but Mr. Spitzer, who called himself a “bulldozer,” plowed ahead. In March 2008, the two men had a tense meeting that Mr. Dolan later recounted to a New York Times reporter. “He was tough,” Mr. Dolan said of the governor.–><!–>
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[–><!–>A week later, Mr. Spitzer was caught up in a prostitution scandal and resigned. By the end of the month, Mr. Dolan’s company announced that the Garden was “not moving,” effectively killing any hopes for Mr. Spitzer’s plan.–><!–>
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Can Trump Make It Happen?
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[–><!–>Rather than bankrolling New York’s plan, the Trump administration announced this spring that it had lost faith in the state’s ability to manage the project and reassigned it to Amtrak. Sean P. Duffy, the transportation secretary, appointed Mr. Byford, who earned the nickname “Train Daddy” when he oversaw the city’s subway system from 2018 to early 2020, to take charge of the “transformation” of Penn Station.–><!–>
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
