New York, NY - The following statement can be attributed to Tom Wright, President & CEO, Regional Plan Association.

RPA applauds Governors Hochul and Murphy and Mayor Adams for jointly announcing bids for the design of the renovation of Penn Station, just one month after joining us at the RPA Assembly where the Governors demonstrated their joint commitment to the Gateway Program. As RPA has stated for many years, the renovation and expansion of Penn Station should be a high priority for both Governors to promote Trans-Hudson rail travel to reduce emissions, recover from COVID, and grow our regional economy. The renovation and expansion of Penn Station must be accompanied by a fully-funded Gateway Program, which now needs a full funding grant agreement for the Hudson Tunnel Project, to double rail capacity between the two states and relieve the bottleneck at the Hudson River.

Penn Station is unsafe and difficult to navigate with narrow platforms, limited vertical circulation, and low ceilings. It is exceptionally hard on passengers with disabilities, seniors, and families with small children. These issues have been compounded by the fact that Penn Station has been operating over its intended capacity for decades, and will be again soon, which won’t be tolerated by riders the way it was pre-pandemic because of the public health and safety concerns.

RPA strongly believes the time to act on building the Gateway Program and improving Penn Station is now, while we have a window of opportunity with federal support for infrastructure investments, reduced ridership from the pandemic, and the opening of East Side Access later this year. To create a truly regional rail system that will promote equitable growth and address climate change we must have a safe, efficient, and dignified Penn Station at its core.