First phase of Penn Station overhaul fully funded

The first phase of a project to significantly overhaul Penn Station has been fully funded and is just months away from beginning construction, officials said Tuesday.

Speaking outside the station, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that the federal government has agreed to allocate $83 million in stimulus funds to jump-start the long-delayed Moynihan Station project, which includes the Penn Station work. The plan, named after former new York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, entails transforming the James Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station into an Amtrak train terminal. The project would ease crowding and improve access for LIRR customers in Penn Station.

First proposed 17 years ago, the project encountered a number of hurdles over the years. However, with a federal Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery grant paying the $267-million first phase, Schumer said the project could break ground in "months."

"At last the barriers are no longer in the way and Phase One will be built," Schumer said. The project is expected to create thousands of jobs and leave a lasting transportation infrastructure that will help revitalize Manhattan's West Side. "Moynihan Station is the poster child for the best way to use stimulus money," he said.

Phase One includes doubling the size of the LIRR's West End Concourse, on the Eighth Avenue side of the station, and adding 13 elevators, stairways and escalators leading down to train platforms. It would also improve customer flow to the concourse by doubling the width of the 33rd Street connector.

The Farley building will get new street-level entrances and a new ventilation system for its future train station.

Phase One is expected to be completed by 2015. Phase Two - the actual construction of Moynihan Station inside the Farley building - is estimated to cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion and will be funded by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Amtrak operations would be relocated from Penn Station to the Moynihan Station.

Bob Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, said Tuesday, "There is no more important project" than Moynihan Station for creating needed rail capacity. That includes the LIRR, he said, which will be running more trains than ever into and out of New York with the expected 2016 completion of its East Side Access project.

One commuter questioned the value of the project. "That's a lot of money," said Ira Freiman, a Manhattan photographer as he waited in the LIRR waiting room inside Penn Station. Freiman, who has been commuting to Long Island for years, said Penn is functional now and the stimulus money would be better spent improving the region's roadways.

STATION OVERHAUL

Highlights of Phase One of the Moynihan Station project, which officials say is now fully funded, with work expected to begin by the end of the year:

EIGHTH AVENUE SIDE

Doubling the length and width of Penn Station's West End Concourse, which serves LIRR customers on the Eighth Avenue side of the station. It will be big enough to house LIRR ticket vending machines.

TRACK ACCESS

Installing 13 new escalators, elevators and stairs to LIRR platforms, which will allow passengers to access 17 tracks from the West End Concourse rather than the current nine. As a result, passengers will clear LIRR platforms more quickly, and trains should be able to move in and out of Penn Station faster.

33RD STREET CONNECTOR

Doubling the width of the connector to the West End Concourse, which will improve passenger flows.

NEW ENTRANCES

Street access to the Farley building, future home of an Amtrak terminal.