…Wow, Are they finally going to do it…?? The blip in News Wire indicates a new approach of the on…off plans for a new Penn Station and a lot more.
This will be interesting to see if this gets off the ground. Seems like several none starting programs have not, so far…This is written up as a “wow” kind of plan…
Even plans to eliminate the Pennsylvania Hotel to make room, etc…
Sounds like this would really do a job on that area and finally bring a “real” Penn Station back to life…Fingers crossed.
Does anybody else find it amusing/frustrating that it seems “everything that goes around seems to come around”? Wouldn’t it have been simpler, way back when, to have had more foresight and not demolished the old Penn Station in the first place?
How can you possibly replcae the original? Nothing anyone could afford will come near replicating the spaciousness and aura of that facility plus the sound of GG1’s humming into the station.
[#ditto] Agreed…even if we could afford the work done by the original artisans, we could never find anybody today that knows how to work that well or that hard.
Agreed about not having the same atmosphere.
As much as I hate not having the original, I can’t blame those who were running Penn Central. The value of having the “new” Madison Square Garden over the station was immense financially. People nowadays forget that when the Carter Administration claimed that the assets of Penn Central were only worth $350,000,000, the US Supreme Court ruled against them and said they were worth $750,000,000. The main factor in the $400,000,000 difference was the real estate value of the “new” Garden. That $400,000,000 meant a lot to the shareholders of Penn Central and was about the only real money they relized.
When the “Late Great” Penn Station was built, the U.S. Government built a matching Post Office with a connecting track to Grand Central for Mail Cars! That connector is now used by Amtrak.
The plan is now to convert the old Post Office to the New Penn Station, while not as “Great”, it will bring back some of the “Late” Penn Station.
If I were to have made the decision about where to put Madison Square Garden back then I would have looked very long and hard at the Times Square area on 42nd Street where (at least back then) all the porno places and strip bars were located…that would have been very much superior to tearing down Penn Station (the original).
…I for one, sure would like to see this version get “off the ground”…Isn’t it time we build some “awesome” buildings for Americans…
Wouldn’t this be a great start. Or continuation…which ever it might be.
Wow, I thoughtthis project was dead in the water. I believe Amtrak and the LIRR pulled out of the plan leaving only New Jersey Transit as the sole tenent for the new station. I know the LIRR is working hard to build its own connection to Grand Central which would also allow Metro-North into Penn.
The new station was to be named after Senator Moynihan, the politician who championed the project. I would love to see it go forward. The current Penn Station is a disgrace. It feels like an airport terminal.
…Yea, it is my thoughts that Sen. Moynihan’s name should be included in the name of the complex if it really is to be built.
Hmm… I guess the developers have already made it known that they were planning on tearing down the Hotel Pennsylvania. I am currently working on the planning of the relocation of Madison Square Garden and the subsequent redevelopment of the area and I know that I was told to keep quiet about the plans for the Hotel Pennsylvania. At any rate, a new MSG arena is suppose to be built on the west end of the post office, the Moynihan West Station will occupy the east end of the post office. A new Moynihan East station is currently planned for the existing Penn Station site on which some office and retail building(s) will be placed on top of it. Although the details are always changing and are still somewhat a secret, the final product looks like it is going to radically change the look of the area around the existing MSG/Penn Station.
The good news is that they’ve gotten developers interested. Still seems like they’ll need some gov’t money to make the public parts go. Just add money, stir and bake at 350 for 10 years…voila, a new Penn Sta.
…I’m remembering back when Sen. Moynihan first got into the idea of creating a “new” Penn Station and quite a bit was written about the project and as the potential plans were revealed, it also was stated the Senator had secured funds to cover a major part of the project.
Now, I’m wondering if that really was a fact, are they still available and if so could they be applied to this “new” project…?
Actually, the new penn station was built because of the lack of foresight in the original. Had they incorpporated offices or something like the MSG in the original, it wouldn’t have to be demolished. the concept is familiar with us today as Transit Oriented Development. the new station is a waste of money, and a massive boondoggle waiting to happen. why does the new station have to serve the same area at all? why not build an entirely new tunnel and station?
and lastly, while this project is good for ny and nj, let’s not say this is for the benefit of americans. much like none of us benefitted from the big dig boondoggle, this just means less money for the rest of us.
…I was never in the World Trade Center buildings but I would be in favor of building them back and even better…it’s part of America. It’s part of the structure and stature of our country.
Suburban Station, I find your conservative anti-tax and your lack of knowledge of the project to be both offensive and naive.
First off, the Penn Station serves well over a half a million passengers, mostly commuters from New Jersey, Upstate New York and Long Island. New York City and this country’s economy depend on people being able to get to their jobs in a timely manner. To ignorantly say that only people in New York and New Jersey will only benefit from this project proves how ignorant and self centered you are. In your line of thinking, if a project doesn’t directly benefit YOU, then you think it is a waste of your tax dollars. I am going to turn the tables on you and say that the Interstate highway that goes by your house is probably a road i will never use so according to your logic, the government has wasted my money. Some goes with the airport near wherever you live. I’ll probably never use it and if I use your logic, then it’s a waste of my tax money because I will never benefit from it.
Secondly, there is another is rail station planned for New York City. There is new set of tunnels being planned to connect New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan. If you had done your research before&nb