Imagine for a moment you want to celebrate something - a new home, a birthday, a wedding... You would invite people, possible people you like or people that you want to impress, or people that are interested in helping you celebrate. You might invite 10, 20, 50 people, maybe 100. Now, think about how MTA works: elected officials and the management of a railroad decide they want [new station/new siding/new shops/more service... insert here]. Just as you would invite people to your new home, MTA invites pols, voters, management, etc... to their new station. you get somewhere between 10 and 100 people that either asked for the project or helped make it happen, and you take them to the site and show them the fruit of their work. It's called good customer relations. It's why every road has a b-train, and many other companies pursue similar affairs.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.