A new city within a city is emerging in West Midtown, and Penn Station is at the center of it. Yet the station is deficient in many ways and critically unprepared to absorb future growth. Over the next few years, difficult decisions about the futures of Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and West Midtown must be made to ensure the economic vitality of the New York region for years to come.

West Midtown is in the midst of tremendous change

Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in U.S. history with tens of millions of square feet of development, is under construction in West Midtown. This development will bring hundreds of thousands of new residents, workers and visitors to the area. The opening of the 7 train extension from Times Square to 34th Street and 11th Avenue, and the completion of the first phase of Moynihan Station will help serve this growing district, but that alone is insufficient to absorb the coming increases in travel demand to and from West Midtown.

Penn Station is struggling to meet current transit demand and unprepared to absorb future growth. Penn Station is the primary transit hub in West Midtown, yet it is critically unprepared to handle any new growth in travel demand. Built to accommodate 200,000 passengers per day; the station is now handling nearly 600,000, contributing to Penn Station’s overcrowded, oppressive and increasingly unsafe conditions. With New York City’s projected growth in both population and employment between now and 2030, now is the time to enact a plan to increase the capacity of Penn Station, the region’s most important transit hub.

The century-old tunnels under the Hudson River that feed Penn Station need to be replaced before major changes to the station can be realized. Major expansion and reconstruction of Penn Station and its 100-year-old tunnels are required to support the expected population growth and catalyze economic activity in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region for the next half century.

The Hudson River rail tunnels, which carry more than 160,000 passengers on more than 500 trains in and out of Penn Station every day, have long been in need of major repairs. The urgency about the tunnels’ condition increased substantially after Hurricane Sandy, which flooded the tunnels for the first time in their history, causing extensive damage. According to Amtrak, both of the Hudson River tunnels need to be shut down, one at a time for more than a year each, for major repairs. With no alternative route into Penn Station, closure of one of these two tunnels would slash rail service across the Hudson River by 75 percent during the busiest periods of the day, severely disrupting travel throughout the region as commuters shift to alternative ways of crossing the river, such as cars, buses, PATH and ferries. The region urgently needs a new pair of rail tunnels to keep track moving. Once built, new tunnel capacity along with the addition of new platforms at Penn Station will provide the “swing space” the railroads need to continue operating uninterrupted as major construction activity occurs at and around Penn Station.

Leaving the Garden in place severely limits options for improving Penn Station.

With Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza in their current configuration, options for improving Penn Station are severely restricted. Bleak entrances could be upgraded; the maze of concourses could be unied, rationalized, and expanded; and retail space could be built to attract high-quality food and goods. However, the structural elements supporting the Garden complex limit potential improvements to tracks and platforms, opportunities to raise ceiling heights and bring in natural light, and more. Leaving the Garden and its structural elements in place would also increase the cost and complexity of many other potential station improvements. A fresh approach to the design of the arena and station would allow for a vastly superior station and more appealing urban conditions.