On August 5th, 2024, Regional Plan Association (RPA) and the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) hosted a public conversation with representatives from Amtrak, NJ TRANSIT and the MTA to discuss obstacles and opportunities for increasing the capacity of New York Penn Station. The panel was moderated by Elizabeth Goldstein of MAS and Tom Wright of RPA, and included Petra Messick from Amtrak, Foster Nichols from WSP, Sean Fitzpatrick from the MTA and Jeremy Colangelo-Bryan from NJ TRANSIT.

The purpose of the forum was to start a public conversation about the future of Penn Station – one that includes civic organizations, residents of New York City and the surrounding region, the railroad operators, elected officials and the broader community. A particular focus of the discussion was the challenges associated with converting Penn Station into a full through-running operation. An audience Q&A followed the presentation and panel discussion.

Working together, the railroads retained WSP, a consulting firm with international experience in rail network planning and train operations, to investigate whether it would be possible to increase station capacity to meet the Gateway Program’s goal of doubling trans-Hudson capacity without expanding the footprint of the existing station. During the forum, analyses of through-running proposals by ReThinkNYC and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign were presented and then discussed by the expert panel. Below, we provide a summary of the August 5th presentations and conclusions, and the discussion with audience members that followed.

An edited transcript of all the questions and answers can be found here, and an unabridged recording of the event is here.

To meet future demand, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit are planning for the Gateway Program to increase trans-Hudson capacity to 48 trains per hour in the peak direction (e.g. into the city in the morning, and out in the evening rush). Plans are being explored for how Penn Station should be designed and engineered to handle this additional demand.

At the forum, Messick and Nichols explained the extent to which the transportation network has recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amtrak has returned to or exceeded its pre-COVID ridership levels, while commuter railroads have recovered to 80-100% of their pre-pandemic ridership, depending on the day of the week with standing-room-only common on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The speakers explained how the existing tunnels under the Hudson River are a major capacity constraint that limits the region’s ability to meet both current and future demand for rail service. By the time the Hudson Tunnel Project is complete, overcrowding is likely to surpass pre-pandemic levels, which already created uncomfortably crowded conditions.

Expanding access to Penn Station with ​“one-seat” rides on all lines, on all days and times is a key focus and policy goal in New Jersey, according to Messick. She also explained how improved, reliable and direct rail service for tens of thousands of passengers will reduce the number of riders who choose to drive, creating cleaner air and helping meet the region’s climate goals.

Nichols explained how New York Penn Station operates in a highly constrained environment, marked by severe congestion on the Trans-Hudson section of the Northeast Corridor (NEC), which has fewer tracks than the 4+ found elsewhere between Washington and Boston. He explained how aging infrastructure at the station is operating beyond the designed capacity, leading to significant reliability breaches and inconsistent customer experiences. Maintenance-related track outages further reduce service capacity, exacerbating operational challenges.

The station is connected to tunnel infrastructure, with two tracks in the North River Tunnel, two future tracks in the Hudson River Tunnel, and one track in the Empire Tunnel from the west, and four tracks in the East River Tunnel from the east, Nichols explained. These connections, along with the Sunnyside Yard and West Side Storage Yard, comprise the components that make the operation at Penn Station possible.

During the morning peak, more than 50% of the NJ TRANSIT and Long Island Rail Road trains that serve passengers at Penn Station ​“through-run” to yards, Nichols said. This operational pattern allows for 1,300 daily train movements in and out of Penn Station.

ReThinkNYC

Nichols analyzed the proposal from think-tank ReThinkNYC to convert Penn Station into a fully through-running operation, eliminating the use of layover yards and the operating strategy of having trains stop at the station, turn around, and go back in the direction from which they came. This transformation would involve removing nine tracks and widening the platforms to 30 feet while staying within the existing Penn Station footprint. The operating regime would follow an ​“All Right-Hand Running” approach, which refers to a railway operating regime where trains consistently use the right-hand track on double-track lines.

WSP identified the following challenges with the ReThink proposal:

• Complexity in integrating all the suburban lines and coordinating schedules
  The proposal aims to pair service by coordinating the schedules, routes, and operations of different suburban rail lines in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut areas to function as a unified network. This would require substantial new investment and resources to increase services, even to stations with relatively light passenger demand on the outer portions of the regional rail network.

• Regional rail network inefficiencies
  Nichols explained that while 100% through-running could be more efficient at Penn Station, it would likely reduce overall network performance. It would lead to inefficient use of the Hudson and East River tunnels. He also explained that not all services are well suited to 100% through-run. For example, Amtrak’s Empire Service, which runs between New York City and Albany does not have a logical service plan with a continuation past Penn Station.

• Constructability Challenges within Penn Station
  In order to execute ReThink’s proposal of widening platforms and creating 12 station tracks, expensive and disruptive structural work would be necessary. It would require over 1,000 columns which support MSG, Moynihan Train Hall, Penn 2 and other structures, to be removed, relocated or strengthened. Nichols estimated that this would cause a 30% reduction in service for 10+ years as tracks were removed from service to construct new tracks and platforms.

• Reducing dwell times for trains in Penn Station
  The ReThink operating plan relies on the assumption that the amount of time needed to board and alight passengers, even with wider platforms, is dramatically lower than it is today. The average time spent at the platform for alighting only in the AM peak is 7 minutes and boarding only in the PM peak is 15 minutes. To achieve the volume of trains in the ReThinkNYC plan, boarding and alighting the same train would have to be reduced to two-minutes. To achieve the volume of trains in that plan, boarding and alighting the same train would have to be reduced to two-minutes. While dwell times can potentially be reduced, achieving the reduction required for the ReThink proposal is likely not possible. For instance, it would require NJTransit replacing their fleet of bi-level trains for a new fleet which would provide faster egress, but lower passenger capacity.

• Through-running would be expensive and require land acquisitions in the Bronx and New Jersey
  Rethink’s proposal would also require building large new stations and new storage yards in Secaucus and Port Morris, adding costs and raising regional equity concerns.

Tri-State Transportation Campaign

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s plan proposes a combination of through-running and turnback operations. In order to achieve increased throughput, the plan calls for widening 5 existing platforms and reworking operations to allow for 100% through-running in the middle zone. Additionally, platforms 1 and 2 would be extended for 12-car trains and would have new connections to the North River Tunnel for turnback service. New tracks would also be added under 31st street and would potentially extend onto Block 780, however there is only room for one track to be added under the 31st Street right-of-way.

WSP’s analysis identified several critical challenges with the proposed plan, many of which overlap with those in the ReThink proposal. In addition, he identified these concerns:

• Diminishing Returns
  Full network integration may not be cost-effective at a large scale, especially since there is not a market for these connections now or in the foreseeable future.

• Operational Trade-offs
  Improving services outside of Penn Station could negatively impact the broader and high demand rail network from Washington to Boston.

• Spatial constraints
  There is not enough physical space within the station footprint to add the necessary platform tracks to operate all proposed services.

• Implementation Risk
  The complexity and risk of implementing through-running are substantial. This approach would be time consuming, costly, and disruptive, potentially delaying the development of urgently needed station capacity.

Main Takeaways

Messick and Nichols concluded their presentation with the following key points:

• Trans-Hudson train service into Penn Station needs to be doubled to at least 48 trains per hour to meet the existing and projected needs of the region.

• The through-running or hybrid configurations that stay within the footprint of the existing station fall short of this goal.

• If executed, the ReThinkNYC and TSTC through-running proposals would require operational challenges resulting in significant reductions in service over many years.

• The agencies should draw from international best practices for through-running:

  • A right-sized, thoughtfully targeted regional metro system; and

  • All-new, purpose-built infrastructure in the urban center including:

    • The new Hudson River Tunnel

    • Dedicated and separate station tracks and platforms at Penn Station

    • A new tunnel under the East River

• A future round of funding could support a system that draws from international best practices for through-running.

• In the meantime, Penn Station is urgently in need of modernization and capacity enhancement to address its deficiencies, improve the passenger experience, and ensure future growth in Trans-Hudson rail service.

In a robust Q&A session, the audience raised a number of issues including questions specific to the presentation and through-running, as well as questions regarding other regional transportation issues that mattered to them.

Questions on the project included operational details about, for example, how the rehabilitation of the North River tunnels might affect train movement and whether the Hoboken Terminal could be better leveraged, especially with the potential introduction of a universal ticket that might be utilized on ferries, buses, PATH, and light rail. One questioner asked what the agencies were doing to ​“future-proof” the plan and purchase of rolling stock, especially with respect to the ability to through-run in the future. Another asked for more details on the assumptions, which the panelists agreed to share.

Other questions touched on issues of economic development outside the core, the need to connect communities with each other and the question of regional governance structures analogous to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that might have oversight over a system with broad reaching regional connectivity as part of its mission.

Community members raised their concerns about displacement and losing their homes if expanding the station means demolishing the block bounded by 7th and 8th avenues and 30th and 31st streets. One member of the audience called for RPA and MAS to join in calling for additional independent review of the project. Others asked about moving Madison Square Garden, whether the needs of the aging and riders with disabilities had been considered, and what might be the implications for Gateway and Penn Station redesign with a new federal administration.

An edited transcript of all the questions and answers can be found here. We also invite you to view the unabridged recording of the event.