Study: Penn Station needs to expand footprint to accommodate Gateway Project

With a $16 billion effort underway to dig a new tunnel and double the number of trains coming across the Hudson River into Manhattan, Penn Station faces a problem: How to accommodate them all.

Doing so will require expanding Penn Station into adjacent properties, according to a new study released Thursday that ruled out other options, including digging deep beneath the existing facility.

The study, commissioned by Amtrak, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit, analyzed four different ways to double the number of trains operating across the Hudson River into and out of Penn Station once work is complete on Amtrak's Gateway Tunnel project, which would build a second tunnel across the Hudson by 2035. 

Because the added capacity would be for trains going across the Hudson, the proposed improvements would not benefit the Long Island Rail Road as much as it would Amtrak and NJ Transit, although the LIRR could stand to gain from having extra breathing room in the bustling transit hub, through which 600,000 passengers travel each day.

The four options included two that would build new tracks below the existing facility, including by potentially mining caverns deep below the 114-year-old station. Two other options looked at using so-called "through-running" to expand Penn's ability to handle train traffic. Under that strategy, Penn would become less of a train terminal and more of a stop along the way, with Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains continuing eastbound, potentially to Long Island, and westbound trains — including LIRR ones — continuing to New Jersey. 

The study ultimately concluded that all of those options had fatal flaws, either because of their inability to meet safety requirements, to deliver the desired doubling of trains crossing the Hudson River from 24 an hour to 48, how difficult they would be to build, or the impact on Penn's existing service. 

"What we found is that we will need to expand beyond the boundaries of Penn to reach the 48-trains-per-hour trans-Hudson capacity goal," Amtrak senior program director Petra Messick said at a Tuesday media briefing in Manhattan.

One option, initially proposed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2020, would add eight tracks to Penn by taking over the block bordered by Seventh and Eighth avenues and 30th and 31st streets. That proposal has met resistance, as it would mean displacing hundreds of residents and businesses.

Messick said the studies wouldn't consider the cost of any of the options until they were determined to be feasible.

Samuel Turvey, chairman of ReThinkNYC, a nonprofit organization that has advocated for a through-running operation at Penn, said he was "disappointed" but "not surprised" by the study's findings. He believes Amtrak and the other railroads have long favored a southern expansion of Penn.

Turvey is still hoping federal regulators will ultimately conclude that such an expansion, which could cost $17 billion, is not cost-effective. "I think the more light that is shed on this, the scarier their findings are going to be for them, because they just don’t make sense," Turvey said.

Asked about the study on Tuesday, MTA officials said they are more focused on a separate effort to rebuild Penn Station above the track level, including by opening up more space for LIRR and subway riders on the concourse level, adding new entrances and letting in natural light. 

"Our focus is making Penn Station a more functional place for the riders who are there — many more people than that facility was designed for," MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said at a separate event. "We're going to leave to Amtrak and New Jersey Transit how to accommodate their trains."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.