By David Shepardson
May 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department said on Wednesday it will provide another $200 million to begin construction by the end of next year on an $8 billion plan to rebuild New York Penn Station, a key transit artery.
U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak and President Donald Trump's administration said the plan includes expanding track capacity, building a grand entrance on Eighth Avenue to a new train hall and replacing aging walkways with open modern concourses. Penn
Station is the busiest transit hub in the U.S., serving 10 million Amtrak passengers annually and 100 million total when regional train systems are included.
Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said USDOT would spend $4.7 billion on rail projects on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, including New York Penn Station and Washington Union Station. "We're going to give $8 billion to rebuild Penn Station," Duffy said Tuesday at a U.S. Senate hearing.
The announcement means New York will not opt to move Madison Square Garden, home to the New York Knicks basketball team, the New York Rangers hockey team, various other sporting events, concerts and shows. The rebuild also includes new retail and a new exterior for a classical look.
In 2021, New York opened a $1.6 billion concourse at Penn Station in the Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station.
The 255,000-square-foot Moynihan Train Hall, featuring a 92-foot high glass skylight and a lounge for nursing mothers, feeds passengers to 17 Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road tracks.
Federal courts have ordered USDOT to keep making payments on the $16 billion New York Hudson Tunnel, rejecting the Trump administration's bid to halt paying for the project.
The Hudson Tunnel Project aims to build a new commuter rail tunnel connecting Manhattan and New Jersey and repair a century-old tunnel used by more than 200,000 travelers and 425 trains daily. The existing tunnel, heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, needs frequent emergency repairs that disrupt travel on the nation's most heavily used passenger rail line.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
