80 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

untapped new york, 12/29/20
 

Virtual Sneak Peek of the New Moynihan Train Hall Amtrak Station

 

 

The highly anticipated opening of Moynihan Train Hall inside the former James A. Farley Post Office is set for January 1st, 2021, with Governor Cuomo announcing that construction will be completed by December 31st, 2020. Untapped New York will take a deep look at the newly opened station, and uncover what remains of the original 1910 Penn Station building, on our upcoming Remnants of Penn Station walking tours and virtual talk on the past, present and future of Penn Station. Plans for the post office transformation and much-needed upgrades to Penn Station were first released back in 2016, and on Friday, the public will get to see those plans come to life. You can get a sneak peek of Amtrak’s new space within the new train hall in the virtual animation below!

 

The new 255,000-square-foot Train Hall will expand Penn Station’s concourse space by 50% and provide new facilities for Amtrak and Long Island Railroad riders. Amtrak’s Club Acela will relocate to the new Tran Hall and be rebranded as the Metropolitan Lounge. The new Amtrak amenity spaces, which have a modern look and luxury feel, were designed by FXCollaborative.

 

One of the most exciting features of the new Train Hall, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, is a 92-foot-high skylight that hangs above an atrium roughly the size of Grand Central Terminal’s Main Hall. The skylight will bring natural light, something Penn Station commuters have always wanted, into the train hall.  . . .

 

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

Planet Princeton, 12/30/20:

 

   NYC design group: New Amtrak train hall only a partial solution for Penn Station’s issues 

 

 

ReThinkNYC, a New York City non-profit specializing in transportation infrastructure, released a statement on Wednesday saying that while the opening of Amtrak’s new Moynihan Train Hall across from Penn Station is an important step toward improving the commuter experience, it falls short of addressing the root of the station’s problems.

 

Read

[CNJRoss]

Moynihan Train Hall | New Penn Station Expansion | New Train Hall in New York City | Manhattan 2021

 

Jan 1, 2021

 

DmitriyArbatov

 

Hello my Friends!

Happy New Year! I hope you are enjoying the very 1st day of 2021!

 

In New York City we got a brand new train hall opened today for public - Moynihan Train Hall. Check it out! It is a really nice addition to Penn Station and very much needed improvement for this train hub. Now customers of LIRR & Amtrak can enjoy this train hall while waiting for their trains, also this place is a new spot to stop by (its open for public and you don't need a ticket to get inside). Pretty cool!

 

[KevinKorell]

nj.com   1/3/21:

 

 

  Inside Penn Station’s new train hall: Soaring skylights brighten commuter hub  

 

 

 

Officials on Friday unveiled the new soaring $1.6 billion Moynihan train hall, freeing some of New York City’s rail travelers from the dingy catacombs of New York’s Penn Station.

 

Details

[CNJRoss]

Introducing the New Moynihan Train Hall - Opening Day

 

Jan 3, 2021

 

DJ Hammers Trains

 

 

The Moynihan Train Hall is an expansion of New York City's Pennsylvania Station into the adjacent James A. Farley Building, the city's former main post office building. Located between Eighth Avenue, Ninth Avenue, 31st Street, and 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, the annex provides new access to most of Penn Station's platforms for Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak passengers, serving 17 of the station's 21 tracks.

 

The train hall was built to alleviate congestion in Penn Station, which saw 650,000 daily riders before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The $1.6 billion renovations retained the landmarked, Beaux-Arts Farley Building and added a central atrium with a glass roof. In addition, Moynihan Train Hall includes retail space, waiting areas, and three works of art. The train hall opened January 1, 2021, and is named for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the U.S. Senator who had originally championed the plan. Enjoy these videos of the very first day of operation!

 

[CNJRoss]

Inside NYC's ornate new Penn Station train hall

 

JAN 2,  2021

 

CBS This Morning

 

New York City's Penn Station has been around for more than 100 years. The trains at Penn have never stopped running, but what’s above them has been built, destroyed, neglected and now born again. As of January 2021, the stunning new part of midtown Manhattan’s historic transit hub is open, carrying with it many of the longtime hopes, dreams and struggles that have defined a city as well as a nation. Jeff Glor takes a look.

 

 

[CNJRoss]

AdWeek, 1/6/21

 

New York’s New Penn Station Is the Marketing

Opportunity Amtrak Has Been Dreaming Of

 

Moynihan Train Hall could help the railroad position itself as a premium travel option

 

 

Moynihan Train Hall reintroduces a sense of occasion missing from train travel for half a century.

Amtrak

 

 

In 1963, when the Pennsylvania Railroad took a wrecking ball to its opulent Manhattan train station—a Beaux-Arts colossus of pink granite modeled off the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome—Yale architecture professor Vincent Scully lamented the loss with words that have since become famous.

 

“Through Pennsylvania Station one entered the city like a god,” Scully wrote. “One scuttles in now like a rat.”

 

SNIP

 

Then, on the first day of 2021, five decades of scuttling abruptly came to an end.

 

On Jan. 1 at 5:00 a.m., security guards unlocked the doors of the new Moynihan Train Hall, a soaring atrium that will serve as Amtrak’s new main concourse. Built within the shell of the old James A. Farley Post Office building just to the west of the original Penn Station’s footprint, the 255,000-square-foot hall gives Amtrak’s New York passengers something they haven’t had for generations: light, air and a sense of occasion.

 

It’s no coincidence that the hall’s parabolic glass ceilings soaring 92 feet above a floor of Tennessee marble evoke the original Penn Station designed by McKim, Mead and White in 1910. The $1.6 billion project, years in the making, was intended to restore a measure of grandeur lost. As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in 2017: “This will be an entrance befitting New York.”

 

More here.

[KevinKorell]

Op-Ed in Untapped New York, 1/6/21:

 

    Moynihan Train Hall is Not Perfect, But It’s Close Enough  

 

 

Moynihan Train Hall is open and in this humble Chief Experience Officer‘s opinion, it is good. The renderings we saw for years became a reality on New Years Day when the spacious 255,000-square foot hall was opened to the public.

 

Opinion

[CNJRoss]

Moynihan Train New Hall By The Numbers

 

Jan 11, 2021

 

Amtrak

 

Amtrak’s New Home in NYC

Get to know Moynihan Train Hall by the numbers

To learn more, visit: https://www.amtrak.c...ynihan-train...

 

[KevinKorell]

It's Amtrak's new home, but it's not the homeless people's new home.  As I observed, there is noplace to sit in the station, save for the Metropolitan Lounge and the specific seating area that has controlled entry.   When the food court opens (presumably by this Fall) we'll see if anyone makes it to that seating. Meanwhile, the old Penn Station remains what it was before, and as many legitimate rail passengers move to the new departure location, there will be more room for vagrants in the "legacy" Penn Station.

 

From The City, 1/10/21:

 

 

   Homeless Feel Unwelcome at Gleaming New Moynihan Train Hall as They Stick to Penn Station  

 

 

When a homeless man who goes by “Kush” first stood outside the new Moynihan Train Hall and peered in, he quickly realized he would be avoiding New York’s newest transit showpiece.

 

“I’ve seen it from the door and I know it’s not for me,” Kush said. “It’s very visible that it’s not for me, so I sleep somewhere else.”

 

Read this.