Penn Station's $7B overhaul to be paid for by federal and state subsidies, Hochul says

It’s back to the drawing board for the plan to renovate Penn Station, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday.

After five years of relying on former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to use fees from 10 new skyscrapers to help pay for an overhaul of the train hub and its surrounding area, Hochul now says the estimated $7 billion of work will be paid for by state and federal subsidies.

The announcement comes after the developer Vornado backed away from plans to build new skyscrapers near the station last year due to low demand for office space.

Hochul said the MTA will run the redesign of the station, which is owned by Amtrak. Preliminary renderings of the plan released Monday are similar to previous ones released by the MTA, with a new skylight and a single concourse with high ceilings.

Amtrak officials said they support the plan. NJ Transit, which runs trains into Penn Station, has not committed to help fund the renovations, and didn’t appear at the Hochuls’ press conference at the station on Monday.

Hochul said the MTA will seek bids from contractors for the station’s redesign.

“We’re going to be open now to any architect, any design firm, any engineer, to allow them the opportunity to compete for a position,” Hochul said.

Officials have no plans to relocate Madison Square Garden in order to bring more natural light into Penn Station.

The MTA last year already inked a $65 million contract with the firms WSP and FXC JV, along with architect John McAslan, to come up with preliminary designs for the station’s renovations.

MTA Chair Janno Lieber said the recently renovated Long Island Railroad concourse on the north end of Penn Station — which has raised ceilings and some natural light — “proof of concept of what we can do and will do in the next phase.”

Lieber said he hopes the new Penn Station will dwarf the city’s other major train halls and be “the size of Moynihan Train Hall plus Grand Central Station combined.”

Critics of the plan, like Manhattan Community Board 5 member Layla Law-Gisko, said the redesign wouldn’t increase service or capacity at Penn Station.

“I mean seriously, that's how we're going to compete with large cities throughout the world? This is pathetic," she said.

Hochul said the renovations are a separate project from the state’s proposed plan to expand Penn Station by razing a city block south of 31st St. Officials said that expansion is necessary in order to operate two new Hudson River train tunnels that are planned through the Gateway Program.

The MTA hopes to fund the renovations with federal grants and state funds. Hochul said her office has already committed $1.3B to the project.

The absence of New Jersey officials during Hochul’s Penn Station announcement comes as Garden State politicians criticized the federal government’s final approval of the MTA’s congestion pricing plan to toll motorists who drive south of 60th St. in Manhattan.

“We will not stop fighting until we defeat this [congestion pricing] plan and ensure New York is not allowed to balance its budget on the backs of hard-working New Jersey families,” said a joint statement issued by New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.

“That’s a Jersey promise.”