{"id":857397,"date":"2026-06-10T11:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:59:15","slug":"editorial-nyc-shouldnt-pay-for-trumps-penn-station-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857397\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial | NYC shouldn\u2019t pay for Trump\u2019s Penn Station overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House said, in so many words, that the state-led effort to modernize the station was not good enough, and because Amtrak owns the tracks and operates out of the hub, it was time for the federal government to step in. Gov. Kathy Hochul, despite being a political rival of Trump, and the MTA<\/a> were all too happy to let the feds step in, especially since the Trump administration said at the time that it would foot the bill.<\/p>\n

This week, the Trump administration, Amtrak and affiliated developers with the Penn Preservation Partners presented grand plans and renderings for the major overhaul<\/a>. It all looks great; it all sounds very promising \u2014 a 175,000 square foot mezzanine to welcome travelers, a grand new entrance on 8th Avenue, a gleaming, bright facade that fits in with the local architecture, and more.<\/p>\n

For decades, since the original, grandiose Penn Station was torn down in the 1960s to make way for the current Madison Square Garden, New York has struggled to recapture the station\u2019s former glory. It\u2019s being done in two parts \u2014 the first was the grand Moynihan Train Hall<\/a>, completed in 2021 at the Farley Post Office Building; the second is this new round of redevelopment, still very much a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Moynihan Train Hall cost $1.6 billion; the next phase of the Penn Station redevelopment already has a price tag of between $7 and $8 billion \u2014 or at least that\u2019s what the federal government and Amtrak have said.<\/p>\n

Andy Byford, former \u201ctrain daddy\u201d of MTA New York City Transit, now serving as Amtrak special advisor for the Penn project, could not provide an exact figure at a Monday briefing. More troubling is the question of where the money for the project will come from; Byford offered few specifics.<\/p>\n

When asked point-blank if commuters would pay through higher ticket prices and other surcharges, Byford immediately dismissed the notion. However, Peter Cipriano of Penn Preservation Partners indicated that funds for the rebuild could be raised through \u201cavailability payment,\u201d in which the feds would charge Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the MTA Long Island Rail Road, all of which use Penn, for the project.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine how Amtrak, NJ Transit, or the LIRR will be able to cough up $8 billion, at a minimum, without raising fares or instituting other surcharges on riders. All three transit agencies constantly struggle with funding as it is; can they really afford another multibillion-dollar bill? We know the riders certainly can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

New York deserves a new and improved Penn Station, but not if commuters are saddled with higher transit prices at a time when no one can afford to pay anymore for anything. Since Trump insists that his administration rebuild Penn Station at the federal government\u2019s expense, he must make sure the federal government pays 100% for the privilege \u2014 and not leave the rest of us holding the bag. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House said, in so many words, that the state-led effort to modernize the station was not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":857398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,23003,102319,349921,349922,252605,5371,133977,349923,9904,405,403,5226,5225,62117,5228,5227,349924,349925,349926,4352,11752,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-857397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-amtrak","tag-andy-byford","tag-commuter-costs","tag-federal-infrastructure-plan","tag-infrastructure-funding","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-long-island-rail-road","tag-moynihan-train-hall","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-nj-transit","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-penn-preservation-partners","tag-penn-station-redevelopment","tag-transit-fares","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s-department-of-transportation","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}