Amtrak and its NYC station

Another concern is that unless station platforms are expected, passengers boarding using stairways or escalators from the Farley building would be at the head or rear of their train, depending on which way it was headed. In that situation, I'd hate to be a passenger walking to/from the last coach on the Silver Meteor.

Want something to hate? Hate the Port Authority for what it does to the poor passengers who fly into EWR Terminal C on Continental and must make a connection to an outbound flight in Terminal A. Surely we're not afraid to give the Port Authority the ol' Amtrak treatment. No sense in holding a double standard, is there?

mattfels wrote:Want something to hate? Hate the Port Authority for what it does to the poor passengers who fly into EWR Terminal C on Continental and must make a connection to an outbound flight in Terminal A. According to this page, that's a distance of well over a mile. By railfan standards, that's disgraceful. Inexcusable. Unacceptable.

Surely we're not afraid to give the Port Authority the ol' Amtrak treatment.

Except of course, you can take the train (monorail) from Terminal C to Terminal A

Forget airports and monorails. Better comparisons to a head-of-platform Penn Station are Washington Union, Chicago Union, and Boston North & South stations, all of which regularly board passengers without incident or complaint.

For the unnimble, or profoundly lazy, easterly exits leading into the present concourse will still be available.

"Without incident or complaint"? That's as true for New York Penn as it is for Chicago Union Station.

JFB wrote:For the unnimble, or profoundly lazy, easterly exits leading into the present concourse will still be available.

Undoubtedly, passengers in the know will continue to use them, which brings to mind the question of why spend all that money ($600 million) on a project whose prospects for success are suspect. New York has a list of transportation projects long as one's sleeve that will do far more to improve the quality of the region's transportation. The money can be better spent on them; use the savings to give us taxpayers a break.

New York has a list of transportation projects long as one's sleeve that will do far more to improve the quality of the region's transportation.

Quite a claim. Such as?

why keep bringing up airports and airlines in the amtrak forum ?

mattfels wrote:

New York has a list of transportation projects long as one's sleeve that will do far more to improve the quality of the region's transportation.

Quite a claim. Such as?

- East Side Access (LIRR to Grand Central)
- Second Ave. Subway
- Extention of #7 train to Javits Center
- Downtown Transportation Center - rehabilitation of Fulton Street complex
- New Jersey - Brooklyn freight tunnel
- Replacement of Tappan Zee Bridge, including possible rail link between Rockland and Westchester counties
- Access to the Region's Core (new tunnels under Hudson River for NJ Transit)
- Direct LIRR service from Jamaica and JFK Airport to Lower Manhattan
- Third track for LIRR between Hicksville and Floral Park

How do we propose defunding Penn Station Redevelopment Corp. and redirecting the funds to these other uses? I'm assuming, of course, that this is an actual goal. Would it be fair to say that consciousness-raising is the first step?

For starters, we could redirect $160M in TIFIA funds to highway improvements in Miami and San Diego.

Yay.

While the romantic in me is drawn to the idea of a "new" Penn Station, the pragmatist recognizes that the return on this project is suspect and the funds can be put toward more worthy projects. I doubt everyone would agree with that assessment, certainly not the politicians - Pataki, Bloomberg, Schumer and Hillary Clinton - who have staked political capital on its completion. Nevertheless, I agree that conciousness raising is a good first step.

The Penn Station of today is a lot better facility than it was when the Penn Plaza project was completed in the mid 1960s. Amtrak, NJ Transit and the LIRR have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize concourses waiting and ticketing areas and improve access to track level.

A more pragmatic strategy would be to build on those efforts. It can't be done today. But keep in mind that Madison Square Garden is nearing the end of its useful life. The Dolans want a new facility. That's the real reason they are opposing construction of a Jets stadium over the West Side Yard.

We may not see it in our lifetimes, but if and when it comes to pass that Madison Square Garden is raised, that will be the time and place to put up a new Penn Station.

The word defunding extends back at least as far as Reagan's first term (typical use: "defunding the Left") and has been in more or less constant use since.

Back to the question at hand: How would the correspondent go about shifting earmarked money toward what he calls a "more worthy"project, and away from Penn Station?

I am glad to see the word pragmatic come up. (And in the same post as the word romantic, too.) Now that we've heard the "romantic" strategy for dealing with Penn--proclaim it odious and wish it dead--what is the pragmatic strategy?

The poster who earlier mentioned more for highways in Miami, actually in
our area (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach), the politicians
are beginning to see the light and maybe sometime we will be spending
on mass transit instead of just highways.
The Miami Metro Rail system was extended about a mile last year and
plans are in the works for much more.
Here in Broward County, there is still more talk than anything else but
hopefully this state (Florida) might someday see things as they see them
in California and improve on city transit as well as Amtrak service.
Hopefully, the high speed rail scheme might die and maybe the state will
see fit to invest in the existing physical plants in partnership with CSX,
Florida East Coast and Amtrak to improve and expand for the benefit of
both passenger and freight services in our state.
I hope this is not wishful thinking but I doubt that I will live to see it come
to pass.
Noel Weaver