The Most Awful Transit Center in America

[Chey]

I thought it would be TRE--but my commute through there is a breeze compared to this.

Whenever I go to New England from NJ, the worst part of the journey (actually, the only bad part) is going through the tunnel--I am always afraid it will collapse right then and there.

To be fair, the one near Baltimore is pretty scary, too.

I've never been North of WAS on the East coast, but every time I go to California I fear earthquakes. I realize that millions of people have chosen to live there, including family members whose earthquake experiences have so far been pretty mild.

At one time I lived in central Arizona and appreciated that the only natural hazard there was the heat. But I left it to live in tornado alley (cost of living was cheaper - at the time).

I guess the thing about Penn Station is it wouldn't even take a natural disaster to bring it down.

 

[Chas]

Cracks in a new floor are giving some of the news media another stick to beat Amtrak with.

https://nypost.com/2018/01/08/penn-stations-new-concourse-is-already-falling-apart/

 

[HP_Lovecraft]

I would call it a shopping mall connected to the train station, really.

The expensive Oculus station ended up being a glorified mall.

Don't get me wrong, I was excited to see the new station last year when I visited NYC. At first, I was very impressed with its design, layout, etc. Until you work your way in, and find out its just an underground mall. And nobody was shopping, at least when I was there.

I guess the argument is they could never have built such an expensive station without funding from the mall section, but what happens if the mall fails?

 

[Green Maned Lion]

When. When it fails. NYC is a historically awful place for shopping malls. There are whole avenues that are miles long out door malls; creating artificial indoor ones is silly.

 

[jis]

The mall in Oculus actually happened after it was built. It was not part of the original plan and the Oculus does not depend on the success of the mall, or at least originally it did not. The fastidious Calatrava objected vociferously about the later addition of the mall.

I do not mind the mall in the Moynihan Concourse. I find it odd trying to give an additional entranceway to a pre-existing station a name that gives the wrong impression that it is a separate station. It is a bit disingenuous and pretentious IMHO. It is like trying to pretend that the Marunouchi exit concourse of Tokyo Central Station is Marunouchi Station.

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[dlagrua]

IMO any replacement for the cave that is now called Penn Station is a step up. Most of the time passengers spend is in the waiting area. To have a big spacious area rather than a claustrophobic low ceiling cavern to wait for your train should be a huge improvement. I am speaking as one who uses that station for NJT and not Amtrak but if you've seen the artists.depiction of the completed Moynihan station I would say most would agree that its a big step up. As for it being a mall. Look at whats in Penn Station now.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I miss Papaya Dog. A lot.

 

[VentureForth]

I do not mind the mall in the Moynihan Concourse. I find it odd trying to give an additional entranceway to a pre-existing station a name that gives the wrong impression that it is a separate station. It is a bit disingenuous and pretentious IMHO. It is like trying to pretend that the Marunouchi exit concourse of Tokyo Central Station is Marunouchi Station.

True. Tokyo Station has two unique names for their entrances - Marunouchi and Yaesu. Yet Shinjuku calls out East and West. Interestingly, these two examples tell you which side of the tracks you'll be exiting on. Moynihan, on the other hand, is inline with the MSG exit. It is odd that they actually call it the Moynihan Station rather than Concourse,Entrance or Access.
So, I guess the question is, what is the "Station"? Tickets, gate, stairs and platform? Or is it the "whole" experience?

 

[railiner]

I believe that Moynihan proponents were pushing for the renaming of Penn Station into "Moynihan Station", but New Yorker's are very resistant to renaming of their institution's, and so they had to settle for just the new part on the old Post Office property to bear that name...

 

[jis]

And they could have just settled for Moynihan Concourse. But no. Of course not. Why stop when you can aid and abet confusion and make people believe they are getting a whole new station. [emoji41] It is amazing how many people believe that there will be new tracks and platforms and argue the point until the cows come home. [emoji57]

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[neroden]

I would call it a shopping mall connected to the train station, really.

You'd be wrong. I've been in those (uh... DC, for example)... this is not that.

Basically Moynihan is a new waiting room. And contrary to the uninformed opinion of those who never take the last Empire Service of the day out of Penn, a new waiting room is badly, badly needed. Seems a little expensive for a waiting room, but that's NYC mobbed-up construction prices for you.

 

[PVD]

You are correct about the need to expand the waiting area, but in addition, you are also creating access on the West side of 8th Avenue, and considering the amount of office development on that side the ability to enter without crossing 8th makes complete sense.

 

[Anderson]

Worth noting is that the article discusses the tunnels alongside the station. The issues are quite related and entangled, don't get me wrong, but NYP's "internal" issues are not the same as the need to repair/replace/augment the Hudson tunnels.