Political leaders in New York have been promising an overhaul of Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan for so long that the saga has started to resemble the Arthurian legend of the sword in the stone.
One by one, officials have tried to pull off ambitious renovation schemes, and one by one they have failed.
On Thursday, President Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean P. Duffy, joined the list. Asserting federal control of the station in a surprise announcement, he vowed to transform it into a safe, clean station that “reflects America’s greatness.”
In all the years of political wrangling, consensus building and master planning, the many obstacles to a new Penn Station have never been challenged so directly by the power of a president. Nor has anyone tried the strong-arm tactics that have defined the first few months of Mr. Trump’s second term.
Now, Mr. Trump’s methods — aggressive demands, bullying, bluster, disregard for legal and bureaucratic structures — will be put to the test against a problem that has for years been mired in a tangle of political cross-pressures and conflicting priorities.
Transportation experts say that under normal circumstances, a thorough renovation of the nation’s busiest transit hub, which serves three different railroads, would most likely take several years and cost several billion dollars. This isn’t China, where a rail station can be upgraded seemingly overnight, they say.
But Mr. Trump has been smashing norms since he retook office just three months ago and could take a similar approach to the Penn Station puzzle, said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at the New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
“If the federal government is in charge of the project, they can adapt the regulations to fit the special needs of Penn Station,” Mr. Moss said in an interview on Friday. “Trump calls everything an emergency. He just has to declare this an emergency and they would be able to do this without the delays of every community board and hearing.”
The administration has dominion over Penn Station because the federal government controls Amtrak, which owns it and the main rail line that runs through it. Two years ago, though, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the city’s subway and buses, took the lead on redesigning the station.
Mr. Duffy said he would hand Amtrak back the responsibility for developing a plan for rebuilding and expanding the station. In its announcement on Thursday, the federal Transportation Department said it would recommend working with private investors to reduce the cost to taxpayers.
New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, had committed $1.3 billion toward a renovation that was expected to cost $7 billion. But on Thursday, she indicated in a tart statement that she would gladly withdraw the state’s financial support and let the federal government come up with the financing.
Thomas K. Wright, chief executive of the Regional Plan Association, endorsed the use of a public-private partnership, saying that model had worked effectively on the new terminals at LaGuardia Airport and the Moynihan Train Hall across the street from Penn Station.
He said he expected Amtrak to seek bids for the renovation and give private partners “a powerful incentive” to finish quickly. “Any delay in delivery,” he added, “would cut into the profits of the entity that builds it.”
An Amtrak spokesman declined to comment on Mr. Duffy’s announcement, referring questions to the federal Transportation Department. Amtrak has been operating without a chief executive since the White House pressured Stephen Gardner to resign a few weeks ago.
Mr. Wright said he now thought that the project would be completed sooner than it would have been under the M.T.A. But, he said, he still expected that it would take at least three years and possibly as many as seven years.
“The delay in this is because it’s just hard to get to consensus,” he said.
Ten years ago, Mr. Wright said, the transformation of the Farley building from a post office into the Moynihan Train Hall “would have been the Holy Grail, and it got done.”
That project had been discussed for many years before any progress was made. Eventually, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, struck a deal with two major developers that turned the building into a cavernous train hall four years ago.
But rebuilding Penn Station into an inviting portal to the city is much more complex.
Mr. Moss, the N.Y.U. professor, said he doubted that the federal intervention could overcome all of the obstacles that slow building big things in New York. There also remains the critical question of who is going to pay for the renovation, he said.
He said that the federal government had already committed more than $10 billion toward building new Hudson River tunnels, which would most likely absorb any discretionary federal funding for transportation projects in the metropolitan area.
“We should not expect the Department of Transportation to now make the rebuilding of Penn Station one of their showpieces,” Mr. Moss said. “I don’t know if this administration has the skill, the patience and the kind of commitment to deal with all of the forces in New York.”
Another big problem is that Madison Square Garden, a concert venue that is also the home of the Knicks and Rangers, sits on top of the station and its owner does not want to move.
Making changes at the station is also complicated by its crowded conditions. Along with being Amtrak’s busiest station, it is the main destination for commuter trains operated by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.
Before the Covid pandemic, the station and its old, narrow platforms were accommodating far more passengers than they were designed for. The tunnels under the Hudson River that connect the station to New Jersey were handling as many trains as possible during rush hours.
So Amtrak and New Jersey Transit devised a plan to add two tracks under the Hudson, effectively doubling the number of trains that could cross the river. Those tunnels, part of a sprawling program of upgrades to the region’s rail network known as Gateway, are under construction. But there is no room for additional trains as the station is currently configured and the railroads have traditionally operated.
Amtrak has been studying how it could add tracks to increase the station’s capacity. Its executives have concluded that it would need to take up more space in Midtown, but community activists and some elected officials have tried to head off the displacement of residents and businesses in the neighborhood.
The new tunnels will not be completed for several years, so there is time to make decisions about expanding the station, Mr. Wright said. But “the sooner the station can be renovated, the better,” he said.
He said he did not want the administration to cut corners or rush while rebuilding the station, though. Amtrak should manage a “transparent process, so the community will have an opportunity to weigh in,” he said.
Patrick McGeehan is a Times reporter who covers the economy of New York City and its airports and other transportation hubs.
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