Empire Station Complex, aka New York Pennsylvania Station

FatNoah wrote: ↑Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:49 am While Moynihan is a far cry from the "take your breath away" GCT or (so I hear) NY Penn in its glory days...

Mr. Noah, as one of the few around here who used "Old Penn" as a paying passenger, the only "take your breath away" about it was a get rid of this dungeon.

Possibly had the initiative been in place as there was to "save GCT" things could have been different, but what I observed was a run down facility where walls were only washed to eye level (OK maybe 7ft) and 50 years of soot atop that. Skylights that were be necessity painted over during WWII, but no effort whatever made to remove such postwar. Oh and lest we forget, the "Flying Saucer" ticket cage that "landed" in the main Waiting Room, so that the previous one could become concessions.

All told, "Good Riddance". Trust me the late Noel Weaver held same and expressed such thoughts within this site.

Has anyone been through Moynihan since the latest mask ruling? I've got some lounge passes I need to use up but just wanna know where I need to mask up and where I can leave it off.

Has anyone been through Moynihan since the latest mask ruling?

No masks required in the train hall or lounge during my visit last week.

Awesome, thanks Noah!

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/nyre ... mtrak.html

Anyone got a shoe horn?

Overburdened Penn Station Needs More Tracks. But Where Could They Fit?

Amtrak, the national railroad that owns the station and the tracks that run through it, is moving ahead with a plan to expand the station at an estimated cost of $12 billion. That plan envisions demolishing an entire block of Midtown that is home to a 151-year-old church.

On Thursday, Amtrak awarded a contract for the design of the station expansion, which it expects will take two years and as much as $73 million to draw up.
...

Latest in the ongoing saga; "The Perils of Penn":

New York Times

Most interesting takeaway; "Present Penn" has now been around for as long as was "Old Penn"

Before the pandemic, Penn Station was the nation’s busiest transit hub, overwhelmed during rush hours by crowds of commuters jostling on and off trains. No architectural gem to begin with, the 54-year-old underground station had deteriorated to an embarrassing condition.

The Times has a "compendium" article prompted by an approval received from a state development board.

Just seems like "it's all about above the ground, and not the infrastructure.

The article is in a "Q & A format", so no Fair Use quotation is being provided.

https://pedestrianobservations.com/2022 ... d-on-fraud - thoughts on "more tracks are needed."

I think he's got a point about dwell and boarding times, but I think getting anywhere close to the dwell times he's advocating would take a fundamental change in both how the tenant and host railroads manage passengers (for example, Amtrak would have to start loading folks on the platforms BEFORE trains arrive) and in how passengers themselves behave. US Passengers aren't used to treating trains like subways, where they have to get on/off in a very short period of time.

Another thing I think would help is by having more trains, people are less concerned about missing a particular train. If the next train is only 15 or even 30 minutes later, it's far less critical than if it's an hour or 90 minutes later.

I do say, I wish one thing Amtrak would work on is both allowing passengers on platforms prior to arrival and posting the platforms not just minutes or even hours, but possibly days before. Airlines routinely do it (and yes, I know sometimes things change) and I understand railroads in other countries do it.

That said, yeah, I often "cheat" for Empire Service trains leaving NYP because they almost always leave from the same track.

Empire Service routine at Penn Station: yeah, a few years ago I rode from New York to Utica, and I was possibly the last one to board the train. All the regulars knew where to line up long before the track was posted. At 30th St. in Philly I noticed the same phenomenon this spring: people lining up at a gate even though no train had been announced for that gate (not even the arrival of the Keystone from New York, which would be the train to Harrisburg). I asked some of the people in line, and they said that usually the Harrisburg train was on that track.

Based on the Penn Station proposals and the latest Washington DC Union Station expansion plan, I have to wonder, will there ever be another classic beaux-arts style building constructed again, or will everything be bland and sterile glass and steel modernist architecture?

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:29 am Based on the Penn Station proposals and the latest Washington DC Union Station expansion plan, I have to wonder, will there ever be another classic beaux-arts style building constructed again, or will everything be bland and sterile glass and steel modernist architecture?

That's a question you'd have to take to the halls of architectural academia, where modernism is the only pure and true religion. IMO, modernism in architecture lost its intellectual dynamism at least 50 years ago, and has been reduced to a bastardized style used to decorate bland boxes. Which is ironic, since that is the very critique that the fathers of modernism levelled against the classical architecture of their day.

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:29 am Based on the Penn Station proposals and the latest Washington DC Union Station expansion plan, I have to wonder, will there ever be another classic beaux-arts style building constructed again, or will everything be bland and sterile glass and steel modernist architecture?

Is that a rhetorical question? Of course it will be bland & sterile and glass.

Being from the Boston area, all train stations should be Richardsonian Romanesque style.

And highly energy efficient. And a modern station should be easy to secure, explosive and riot resistant. And being in new york it should have graffiti-resistant coating.

They'll probably go for some postmodern aesthetic that tries to nod towards Beaux Arts without actually committing to it (and by trying to please everybody, end up pleasing nobody).

you mean
"the Homer"?