Feds Take Over Penn Station Renovation Plan

The Trump administration took over planning for the renovation and possible expansion of Penn Station, shoving the MTA aside and saying that it had been a mistake to divide the project between improving the station and increasing its capacity.

As part of the Trump administration’s intervention, the Federal Railroad Administration said it will examine whether expansion of the station can be minimized or avoided by overhauling train service to run Long Island Railroad and NJ Transit through the station rather than ending their runs there.

The FRA is also considering a request from transit advocates for an independent review of “through running,” which the railroads have said won’t meet their need to double service by the next decade, a spokesman said.

The ground-changing announcement, by the US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was a direct slap at Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had personally lobbied President Trump for support of the renovation plan the MTA has been developing.

“There is no reason to delegate leadership on this important project,” said the statement from Secretary Duffy.

Officials have estimated that a renovation of the station would cost $7 billion, but expanding it would add billions more to that price tag.

Amtrak, which owns the station, had turned renovation planning over to the MTA, whose Long Island Railroad is the largest tenant. Amtrak and NJTransit were then proceeding separately on planning for what they say is the need to double the capacity of the station by the next decade, which could require tearing down adjacent city blocks.

Duffy rejected this division and said Amtrak should take charge of everything under the supervision of a USDOT department, the Federal Railroad Administration.

He rescinded a $72-million planning grant that the Biden administration had made to the MTA for the renovation and said the money would be reduced and combined with a grant Amtrak had been awarded to study expansion.

In doing this, he appeared to reject the effort by MTA and Hochul to accelerate renovations by excluding them from the major environmental review process that any expansion of train service is likely to be subjected to.

But an FRA spokesman said that no decision had yet been made on whether renovations, now directed by Amtrak, would be included in whatever review is ultimately ordered under the National Environmental Policy Act.

For her part, Hochul claimed she had won a victory by getting the President to intervene. She based this on her interpretation that the federal government would now pay the entire $7 billion estimated cost of renovating the station, although Duffy made no such public commitment.

“In multiple meetings with President Trump, I requested that the federal government fund the long-overdue overhaul of Penn Station,” Hochul said. “Clearly that effort has been successful, and I want to thank the President and Secretary Duffy for taking on the sole responsibility to deliver the beautiful new $7-billion station that New Yorkers deserve. This is a major victory for New Yorkers, and the use of federal funds will save New York taxpayers $1.3 billion dollars that would have otherwise been necessary for this project.”

Under previous plans, the federal government, and the states of New York and New Jersey would have divided the costs. Before Covid, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had proposed to cover at least part of New York’s share of renovating the station by siphoning funds from a massive redevelopment around the station. But with interest rates high and office rentals volatile that plan has been moribund.

Duffy did say the administration would be looking for a private developer to partner with, the same sort of Public-Private Partnership, or P3, that has been used to rebuild LaGuardia Airport and the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station.

Trump allies had been pressing the President to intervene at Penn Station, offering a plan recently to move Madison Square Garden and build a park and classically designed train hall that would echo the original Pennsylvania Station, torn down in the 1960s. They had met with Secretary Duffy’s staff recently.

But there has also been widespread frustration in other quarters with the railroads and their efforts to move the project forward.

“For years, a different path for the reconstruction and capacity expansion of Penn Station has been severely needed,” said the neighborhood’s Assembly member, Tony Simone. “I have long called for an open RFP [request for proposals] process on the design of the future station, to open the door to a public-private partnership, incorporate through-running, and truly study the best way to improve track capacity without demolishing any of our neighbors’ homes. It is imperative that the MTA and local stakeholders continue to be full partners in any plan. . . . I am beyond skeptical that this federal government can manage a project of this size by seizing control while simultaneously slashing funding.”

Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress, said cooperation among levels of government and the private sector could produce both a better station and rail service. “Let’s build this now,” he said.

But Duffy’s intervention may actually slow at least some elements of the work. Advocates like Samuel Turvey, head of ReThinkNYC, have been demanding an independent review of how Amtrak and the commuter railroads operate, saying they could get many more trains through the station if they worked together.

Duffy did not directly respond to that demand. But the counsel to the Federal Railroad Adminstration, Kyle Fields, told Amtrak in a letter that “FRA believes robust planning is necessary to ensure service objectives and preliminary alternatives are based on updated ridership and operation analysis, as well as build stakeholder support.”

The FRA spokesman later said this would include an examination of through-running.

Duffy has been feuding with both Hochul and the MTA, particularly over the congestion-pricing project that tolls cars entering central Manhattan to generate funds for MTA capital improvements.

“New York City deserves a Penn Station that reflects America’s greatness and is safe and clean,” Duffy said. “The MTA’s history of inefficiency, waste, and mismanagement also meant that a new approach is needed.”

The notion of a public-private partnership to rebuild Penn Station has been advanced by one of those possible partners, ASTM, an Italian infrastructure company that already has other projects with the MTA, and by the Grand Penn Community Alliance, whose plan for the site was funded by Tom Klingenstein, a conservative philanthropist who is on the board of the National Civic Arts Society, which promotes the revival of classical architecture.

“The Grand Penn Community Alliance has had very positive and productive meetings with officials in Washington following our public unveiling last month,” said its chief architect, Alexandros Washburn. “It is clear that our plan is the best plan worthy of the President’s bold vision for a reimagining of Penn Station while building a classical, world-class transit hub and creating a vibrant neighborhood around it.”

The Trump administration’s intervention left some of the most important figures in the project scrambling to protect their record and recalibrate their role

“Governor Kathy Hochul has prioritized the reconstruction of Penn Station for years, and we’re glad the federal government is focusing on it now,” said MTA Chairman & CEO Janno Lieber. “Over a hundred million MTA customers—two-thirds of Penn Station’s total ridership—use the facility every year. As the major leaseholder in the station, we expect to participate in the administration’s and Amtrak’s efforts to ensure future plans meet the needs of everyone who uses it.”