Trump administration to take over Penn Station renovation, rebuking MTA

The long-awaited $7 billion renovation and potential expansion of Penn Station will be overseen by Amtrak after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced late Thursday the project would be taken out of the hands of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said shifting the project from the MTA to Amtrak, which owns the 114-year-old Penn Station, would save taxpayers approximately $120 million.

"President Trump has made it clear: the days of reckless spending and blank checks are over," Duffy said in a statement. "New York City deserves a Penn Station that reflects America’s greatness and is safe and clean. The MTA’s history of inefficiency, waste, and mismanagement also meant that a new approach is needed."

There have been a number of proposals to renovate and expand Penn Station. One of the goals would be to dramatically increase space inside the station, including by potentially removing parts of Madison Square Garden above it or moving the arena altogether, Newsday has reported.

Amtrak has been pushing a plan to expand Penn Station, potentially by acquiring the block south of it and building new tracks underground.

It was not immediately clear how the Trump administration envisions a new Penn Station or which, if any, of several competing ideas for a station expansion and overhaul it would support.

In a statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has been feuding with the Trump administration over the congestion pricing program launched in January, fashioned the change as a policy victory for the state, which would reduce its own investment into the project.

"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 that would have otherwise been necessary for this project."

MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber in a statement said he's glad the federal government is prioritizing the reconstruction of Penn Station but insists the city's transit agency should continue to play a role moving forward.

"Over a hundred million MTA customers — two-thirds of Penn Station’s total ridership — use the facility every year," Lieber said. "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."

The Department of Transportation Thursday said it would champion a "public-private partnership model for Penn Station" to minimize the financial risk to taxpayers and that the shift would allow Amtrak to pursue a master developer to determine the reconstruction and potential expansion of the transit hub.

"We’re restoring accountability to infrastructure projects," Federal Railroad Administration Chief Counsel Kyle Fields said in a statement. "By empowering Amtrak and leveraging private investment, we’re guaranteeing a Penn Station that’s safer, more reliable, and built to serve the American people for generations."

Fields informed Lieber of the change in a letter Thursday, in which he said the FRA "determined the necessary planning for reconstruction and expansion of Penn Station will be conducted under a single grant, led by Amtrak."

In November, the FRA issued a $72 million grant to kick-start major improvements to Penn Station, which serves about 600,000 passengers each day.

The award was to go toward design and early engineering work for several planned upgrades to Penn Station, including the construction of an underground walkway linking to the Herald Square transit station at Broadway and Sixth Avenue, which hosts eight subway lines and the Port Authority’s PATH train service.

The planned upgrades intended to get off the ground a larger $7 billion reconstruction of Penn Station that Hochul and the MTA proposed but have yet to fund.

There have been a number of competing proposals floating around about the future of Penn Station. For example, the MTA had planned for a tall, skylit train hall built closer to Seventh Avenue, where officials say most travelers enter and exit the station.

But, for the MTA to build its train hall, a pedestrian bridge leading eventgoers into MSG would have to be reconstructed. Garden officials have said that plan would disrupt the cooling system needed for the New York Rangers’ ice rink and could force the team out of the building for a full season.

The announcement came as the Trump administration has given the MTA a Sunday deadline to end congestion pricing. The MTA has refused to comply with that deadline.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed a number of arguments in lawsuits filed to stop the MTA from charging drivers a toll to drive into parts of Manhattan, The New York Times reported. The decision, the Times said, could strengthen the state's ability to fight the administration's demand to end the program.

With Yancey Roy and Alfonso A. Castillo

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.