The Moynihan Train Hall Project, one of New York’s largest and most ambitious transportation and infrastructure projects in decades, will be done on time and on budget, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday.
Cuomo said the project would be done on Dec. 31, 2020, and that train operation will begin on Jan. 1, 2021.
The 255,000-square-foot, $1.6 billion project transform the 100-year-old James A. Farley Post Office Building into a modern facility that upgrades and redesigns one of America’s business transit hubs, expanding Penn Station’s rail complex’s concourse space by 50 percent.
“New Yorkers have known for decades that Penn Station needed to be reimagined — and after years of work, the Moynihan Train Hall will open on time and on budget at the end of 2020,” Governor Cuomo said. “This monumental accomplishment is a shot of hope as we come out of one of darkest periods in our history and sends a clear message to the world that while we suffered greatly as a result of this once-in-a-century health crisis, the pandemic did not stop us from dreaming big and building for the future. The new Moynihan Train Hall is the embodiment of New York Tough.”
Named after the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the new train hall will house Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road ticketing and waiting areas. All trains will be serviced by the 17 tracks accessible from the hall.
First announced by Cuomo in his 2016 State of the State Address, the project was funded through a public-private partnership between Empire State Development, Vornado Realty Trust, Related Companies, Skanska, the MTA/LIRR, Amtrak, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.