(The following story by Ken Valenti appeared on The Journal News website on August 11.)
NEW YORK — If Metro-North Railroad ran some trains to Pennsylvania Station from Westchester and points north, Yonkers resident Denis Del Bene could skip the Manhattan shuttle train and the crowded Times Square station.
Leon Horman of Yorktown could cut “about 10 minutes and a lot of aggravation” off his commute to Hudson and Houston streets. Freelance photographer Mike Miner would leave his car at home in Wappingers Falls and take the train to get to his work with the MSG network at Madison Square Garden, directly above the station.
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“If I had the opportunity to take a train, being that The Garden is right above Penn Station, that would be great,” said Miner, 39.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a $1.2 billion plan to run some Metro-North trains to the station between Seventh and Eighth avenues in the 30s. It’s a sort of flip side to the much larger $7.2 billion East Side Access project that will bring some Long Island Rail Road trains to a station being created below Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street at Park Avenue.
Removing some Long Island Rail Road trains from Pennsylvania Station, which is now booked solid with more than 1,300 train arrivals and departures a day on its 21 platforms, could allow Metro-North trains to enter the station on Amtrak tracks that still exist. First, however, Metro-North would need new trains and diesel locomotives to be able to use Amtrak’s tracks on two lines, the Empire Line along the west side of Manhattan and the Hell Gate Line that goes through Queens and the Bronx. Plus, 880 yards of new third rail would be added to the Hell Gate Line. Metro-North also plans to build five new stations in Manhattan and the Bronx along the lines.
The two projects together would make for a “more balanced transportation system,” the MTA boasts on its Web site.
Some commuters are skeptical that the Metro-North project will come soon.
“Sounds great, if they can do it in my lifetime,” said Horman, the Yorktown resident, who works for Thomson Reuters at Hudson and Houston streets.
“Have faith,” said Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. “Support the capital program. We need to expand the system. Everybody knows the transit system is bulging.”
But while the MTA has touted the progress of the East Side Access project, offering reporters tours of the tunnels being bored, there is less talk about the Penn Station Access program. The MTA had planned to set aside $400 million – a third of the cost – in a $29.6 billion capital plan proposed in February to demonstrate projects that could be helped by funds raised with a congestion pricing plan. But the pricing plan, which would have charged motorists an $8 fee to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street on weekdays, died in April when the state Assembly refused to vote on it.
Now, the railroad plans to include some funding for the Penn Station Access project in its 2010-14 capital plan to be proposed in late 2009, Anders said. Meanwhile, the railroad plans to revamp a study, begun years ago but never completed, of environmental effects the project would bring, she said. It will be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration, she said.
In the fall, the MTA plans to hire a consultant to study how Pennsylvania Station could be used by Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit, which all use the station now, as well as Metro-North. It will consider the Access to the Region’s Core project that includes boring new tunnels from New Jersey to Manhattan and increasing Pennsylvania Station capacity.
But money is short, so much so that the MTA has proposed an 8 percent fare and toll increase next year for its trains, buses, bridges and tunnels to help cover a projected $900 million shortfall. The agency is looking for an additional 5 percent increase in 2011. Other large projects, such as the Second Avenue subway and the Seventh Avenue subway extension, have had completion dates pushed back by the financial problems.
“We’re facing some pretty tough times right now because more and more people are looking for transit options, and there simply isn’t enough money for all of these projects,” said Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “We’re calling on our leaders to show some leadership and get some more money into these transit projects. … The MTA is in such a fiscal crisis right now that without a lot of money going into our transit network, projects like this are probably in the distant future.”
State Assembly members Mike Spano of Yonkers and George Latimer of Rye, whose districts both include Metro-North commuters, said the project was a wise one, even if it did cost more money. Both Democrats sit on the Assembly transportation committee. Latimer said people would accept fare increases more easily if they saw benefits such as the increased service it would offer.
“The person could see a reason for their fare if they had an added advantage,” Latimer said. “So I hope that it could be part of a plan and, hopefully, a high priority part of the plan.”
Anders said the Penn Station Access project is relatively inexpensive, mainly because the tracks are in place. Amtrak’s Empire Line runs from Pennsylvania Station up the west side of Manhattan to meet with Metro-North’s Hudson Line just above the Spuyten Duyvil station. Along that line, Metro-North would create stations at West 62nd Street and West 125th Street. Heading east from Pennsylvania Station, Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line runs into Queens and up through the south and east Bronx, joining Metro-North’s New Haven Line just before New Rochelle. Metro-North would create stations in Hunts Point, Parkchester and Co-op City.
Metro-North’s Harlem Line does not connect to an Amtrak route.
“Metro-North access to Penn Station would really help the Bronx and especially neighborhoods like Hunts Point and Co-op City,” Slevin said. “It would help improve their transit access both into Manhattan and north to job opportunities outside New York City.”
Some questioned the need for Metro-North to reach Pennsylvania Station. Chappaqua resident Donald Bloom, who works in Times Square, said he was concerned that the project would reduce Metro-North service to Grand Central.
“A lot of people live along Metro-North lines that go to Grand Central because they want to go to that station,” Bloom said. Of MTA planners, he said, “It seems like they’re fixing something that’s not broken.”
Anders said that, with ridership growing virtually every year, there’s no danger of scaling back service.
Del Bene, the Yonkers resident, would relish the opportunity to catch the train at 34th Street rather than take the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square. The shuttle platform is poorly designed for the crowds it holds, so that “people step on your feet at least once a week,” and, he said with tongue-in-cheek, “There’s always lovely aromas in the summer at Times Square.”
Then there are others who simply prefer Grand Central. New Rochelle resident Felicia Gallo, who works about two blocks north of Pennsylvania Station, nonetheless prefers arriving at Grand Central and walking 17 minutes to the office. Grand Central, she said, is less crowded and more attractive.
“It’s a nicer station to come into,” she said.