Hochul’s flawed vision for Penn Station renovation

The “A Shared Vision For Penn Station” is just that, a vision with no concrete foundation. We still need more details concerning the scope of work, cost, budget, funding source and detailed timetable for construction of Gov. Hochul’s proposed $7 billion to $8 billion Penn Station Improvement project. Notably absent were Sen. Chuck Schumer, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, along with any elected officials from Queens, Nassau or Suffolk Counties, many of whose constituents are LIRR riders. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Sens. Cory Booker, Robert Menendez and New Jersey Transit were also missing. Perhaps many of them are not on board with Hochul’s latest Penn Station vision.

This project, just like the completion of the new Penn Station $700 million Main Concourse and new 33rd Street/7th Avenue entrance, missed something critical. The LIRR previously spent $200 million for a new entrance on West 34th Street, along with work on the Main Concourse in 1994 and $300 million for the West End Concourse in 2010.There is also the $1.6 billion Moynihan Train Hall in 2021. There is even less seating in the reopened old 7th Avenue LIRR waiting room. The total $2.7 billion did nothing to eliminate periodic cancellation and consolidation of LIRR, NJ Transit, and Amtrak trains utilizing either the East River Tunnels (due to signal, power or other malfunctions) or improve the reliability of LIRR service.

These capital improvements are putting lipstick on a pig. The same holds true for Hochul’s newest Penn Station boondoggle. Her pet project does nothing to repair the East River Tunnels, add additional seating, platform and track capacity or restore frequency of direct service lost by diversion of trains to Grand Central Madison. Most LIRR commuters desire safe, reliable, frequent service including a seat while waiting for a train, at a reasonable price. Port Washington branch riders miss our previous frequent one-seat ride to Penn Station. It is now primarily once rather than twice hourly. The reliability of service via the East River tunnels will not happen until Amtrak completes repairs to all four tunnels by 2027 or later.

By uncoupling Phase 2 from Phase 1, the billions in Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) funding from developers for office buildings will disappear. There is only $1.3 billion in state funding. This leaves a shortfall of a minimum of $5.7 billion.

Hochul said that Washington will provide these funds. A majority would be from the Federal Transit Administration Capital Investment Grant Core Capacity New Starts program. Has she directed MTA Chairman Janno Lieber to enter this project into the FTA CIG Core Capacity New Starts program? If so, what is the current status of FTA review?

The fatal flaw is financial. This project will be competing against many other transportation priorities supported by Hochul and MTA Chairman Lieber for federal funding This includes $18 billion first phase or full build $39 billion Gateway Tunnel, $7.7 billion 2nd Avenue Subway Phase 2, $10 billion Port Authority 42nd Street Manhattan Bus Terminal, $10 billion Port Authority Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel and $5.5 billion Brooklyn/Queens

Light Rail Connector. All of these projects have something in common that elected officials and transit agency CEOs never want to acknowledge. As any major capital project advances through design and engineering, estimated project costs continue to rise.

Responses to any construction procurement can come in above the project engineers’ estimate. Any final project cost upon completion could increase based upon responses to bids, along with change orders during construction due to last minute changes in scope or unforeseen site conditions, inspection and acceptance of all work that also includes quality assurance and quality control during construction followed by beneficial use, completion of contract punch list items (to insure contractor built the asset to meet design and engineering contract specifications), receipt of asset maintenance manuals followed by contract(s) closeout, release of retain age and final payment. The final price tag could be billions more than the current cost estimates.

Based upon my previous experience working for the Federal Transit Administration, there will never be enough funding available from Washington to advance all of these projects at the same time in coming years.

Larry Penner Great Neck

Larry Penner — transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously served as a former Director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management.