Amtrak/LIRR Moynihan Train Hall

electricron wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:54 am

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:11 am ...and Moynihan is a disaster already now that traffic is picking back up:
In this case, I think the pictures tell more than the story, and they quote from Twitter:

Another example of it has to look pretty at all costs, dang the passengers actually waiting for a train.
A seat less waiting area is a terrible waiting area no matter how beautiful it looks.

It looks like a typical Cuomo project. Pretty but no seats. They can build nice seats for the station. I hope they do. It would have the similar layout to 30th street station.

They have a seating area for ticketed passengers that is quite nice although it could be a little larger. When I was there in June the station was pretty busy but there where seats available in that area. Also if you look at those pictures most people sitting on the floor are next to the boarding gates. Many people do this just before there is a boarding call for their train. Being near the front of the line helps going down the escalators and getting on the train quicker so you can find a decent seat. Anyone boarding at Penn knows how narrow the boarding platforms are and how congested it is trying to board.

PHLSpecial wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 10:29 am It looks like a typical Cuomo project. Pretty but no seats. They can build nice seats for the station. I hope they do. It would have the similar layout to 30th street station.

Mr. PHL, go overseas then tell the Forum how many seats you found at any major Estación, Gare, Hauptbahnhof, or Stazione.

Since platforms are narrow are the escalators also narrower as is NYP ?

I wouldn't say any narrower, probably about the same

People stopped respecting the difference between a concourse and a separate, designed-to-purpose waiting area once airports incorporated waiting areas at the gate. Architects and interior designers no longer think about these spaces for the general, ticketed passenger like they used to. Except for $$$$ first-class lounges, of course.

Go to GCT and you'll see the same thing... not many places to sit (at least upstairs).... and there's a good reason for that. Ever seen pictures of the old waiting room at GCT during the 70s? early 80s before restoration? Lots of homeless who camped out at the station. Penn was the same way, even worse since its open 24/7. Yes, there is the ticketed waiting area, which I have used each time I've waited for my train at Moynihan (I was there last Saturday, quite empty, but it was 7:30 in the morning).

Now that's not to say they won't throw up some benches in there.... in an out of the way space as to not block travelways. Perhaps along the escalator openings. But again, such could attract "unwanteds". The opening of the food hall in the fall will most likely have seating for its customers.

Railroad history has shown a "concourse" doesn't really have seating... that's meant for the main waiting room (and Moynihan Train Hall is just really an updated "concourse". Its hard to imagine Washington Union Station's 4-story mall/ticketing area/food court was once one big open hall with nary a bench to be found.

I remember the 1970s GCT pretty well. The rest rooms in particular were reputed to be very scary. I couldn't understand, as a young kid, what had happened to the railroads that had reduced such amazing public spaces and transport utilities to such parlous conditions. The last years of PC's commuter service were particularly bad. When MN was formed, it actually got worse (on the Harlem Line) until electrification and high-level platforms showed obvious signs of welcome investment.

Probably the best topic at which to place this laugh

Anyone know that Amtrak also serves the Occlus Train Hall at the World Trade Center?

Well, the producers of SVU apparently do.

In Episode 12, the "bad guy" is skipping town on Amtrak and is "leaving" from the WTC Oculus. Of course Captain Benson's squad is there to chase him down and nabs him before he boards a train.

Good luck, producers, finding an Amtrak train on PATH. I guess if the script called for an on-train "collar", they'd have to livery some PATH cars as Amtrak.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:18 pm Probably the best topic at which to place this laugh

Anyone know that Amtrak also serves the Occlus Train Hall at the World Trade Center?

Well, the producers of SVU apparently do.

In Episode 12, the "bad guy" is skipping town on Amtrak and is "leaving" from the WTC Oculus. Of course Captain Benson's squad is there to chase him down and nabs him before he boards a train.

Good luck, producers, finding an Amtrak train on PATH. I guess if the script called for an on-train "collar", they'd have to livery some PATH cars as Amtrak.

Sloppy writing. Good for a laugh... but for a side serious note, I bet those Amtrak trains couldn't fit inside the tunnels (the tracks are standard gauge but the power is incompatible).

Don't know why they bother shooting on location anyway when it's the wrong location -- They could probably find some stock footage of the Daylight or something -- who'd know the difference?

Mr. ExCon, for a show that has its "ripped from the headlines" storylines (and for which a disclaimer that it is fiction is always aired), with its authentic on location shots around NY City (fictional names except for the Judicial complex at Foley Square), I'm surprised that they had to take such "license" to depict the WTC Oculus as an Amtrak station. Possibly the producers approached Amtrak asking to film this "collar" scene (SVU depicts sexual crimes but still aired on broadcast TV) at Moynihan but were told to "get lost".

Probably just as well.

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 10:59 pm Don't know why they bother shooting on location anyway when it's the wrong location -- They could probably find some stock footage of the Daylight or something -- who'd know the difference?

Much like the Show Bones having an incident on WMATA metro. But the mock up used is for BART train and station.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:17 am Mr. ExCon, for a show that has its "ripped from the headlines" storylines (and for which a disclaimer that it is fiction is always aired), with its authentic on location shots around NY City (fictional names except for the Judicial complex at Foley Square), I'm surprised that they had to take such "license" to depict the WTC Oculus as an Amtrak station. Possibly the producers approached Amtrak asking to film this "collar" scene (SVU depicts sexual crimes but still aired on broadcast TV) at Moynihan but were told to "get lost".

Probably just as well.

Yeah. WMATA would allow some filming but that got locked down due to security issues. A lot of filming now happens after hours at Baltimore's Metro subway.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:18 pm In Episode 12, the "bad guy" is skipping town on Amtrak and is "leaving" from the WTC Oculus. Of course Captain Benson's squad is there to chase him down and nabs him before he boards a train.

I'd argue this is worse, on IMDB for Episode 12:

Goofs
Amtrak doesn't have a service to Tampa, nearest station is in Orlando.

A goof goof.

NY State has a lot of incentives and facilities, and fewer cut-rate filming deaths like Georgia (freight train) or New Mexico (revolver). It sometimes fills in for DC and suburbs (not always convincingly: the lauded spy show The Americans). So it's fun to see Bones in the right place, but I hear people make fun of that show for some reason. The best DC-shot show I watched attentively was Braindead, a one-season wonder on CBS with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Tony Shalhoub.

If you see Metro North on TV or film, it's going to be the Hudson Line, naturally.

A quick Google search of "can I film at..." shows PANYNJ may be more receptive to it at the WTC Oculus, than Amtrak at Moynihan.