(The following article by Tom Feeney was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on November 9.)
NEWARK, N.J. — New Jerseyans who commute into Midtown Manhattan will soon be able to sidestep the crush of humanity at the main entrance to New York Penn Station.
NJ Transit has hired a Yonkers, N.Y., firm to build an entrance all its own — at 7th Avenue and 31st Street — that will deliver commuters directly to and from NJ Transit’s Concourse.
When the project is completed in mid-2008, NJ Transit commuters will be able to leave the busy main entrance on 7th Avenue at 32nd Street to riders heading for Amtrak or Long Island Railroad trains or to the numbers 1, 2 or 3 subways.
NJ Transit trains carry 70,000 riders into Penn Station every day, spokesman Dan Stessel said. About 70 percent of them use the station’s main entrance. Many Amtrak and LIRR riders use the entrance, too, as do a smaller number of subway riders, Stessel said.
A taxi stand just outside the entrance adds to the chaos, as does the fact that many people with products, services or ideas to sell choose the location to pass out their leaflets.
“This entrance often becomes very crowded, especially when the hoard of commuters rushes across 7th Avenue at 31st Street as the light changes to green,” said Steven Barach, who commutes on a Midtown Direct train between Millburn and his job at G.A. Kraut Co., a public relations company on Madison Avenue.
Barach said he likes the idea of making it less unpleasant to get into and out of Penn Station, but questions whether the improvement is worth what NJ Transit will have to pay.
The NJ Transit Board approved an $11.8 million contract yesterday with Yonkers Contracting Co. Inc. Design. Administration and permitting for the project will add another $2 million to the cost.
The separate entrance is part of a much larger NJ Transit project called “Access to the Region’s Core,” or ARC, which will expand passenger rail capacity serving Midtown Manhattan. The program includes construction of a $7.2 billion tunnel beneath the Hudson River and the proposed Moynihan Station, a new facility just across 8th Avenue from Penn Station where NJ Transit would be the primary tenant.
The NJ Transit Board approved design work in April for a new concourse and track extension that would join the Penn Station Concourse with the Moynihan Station.
“The new 31st Street entrance will enhance the functionality of our concourse, which has become even more popular with customers since we opened it in 2002,” NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington said. “The project has been designed to complement the other projects we’re advancing in and near New York Penn Station to accommodate our growing ridership.”
The new entrance will have a barrel-vaulted ceiling with exposed, open trusses. The design was meant to be reminiscent of the old Penn Station, which was razed in the mid-1960s to make way for Madison Square Garden, NJ Transit officials said. The contract with the Yonkers firm calls for a new public address system and new lighting, signs and display boards.
Having an entrance of its own should make NJ Transit’s concourse easier to find for occasional commuters who aren’t familiar with the layout of Penn Station, said Craig Bizjak, who rides the Morris & Essex Line into Midtown every day.
“It’s quite confusing to try to explain to someone how to get in and out of Penn Station when using Amtrak, LIRR or NJ Transit areas,” he said.
Other commuters wondered whether the location of the new entrance would make it useless to large numbers of NJ Transit riders.
“I think it is a real bad investment,” said Alex Cabe, who commutes on the Gladstone Branch to his job on East 52nd Street. “Most people that commute in and out of Penn Station work in mid- and uptown NYC.”
For those people, an entrance at 31st Street would be out of the way, Cabe said.
Cabe and other commuters said they think NJ Transit officials ought to focus their energies on more pressing issues, such as updating signaling equipment and improving train schedules.
“From a daily commuter’s perspective, one of the most difficult situations is the animal-like environment that NJ Transit forces us into every day for outbound trains,” said Mike D’Angelo, who rides a Midtown Direct train from Denville to his job at Price Waterhouse Coopers on Madison Avenue. “I don’t know if a new entrance will help at all with the overwhelming rush of NJ Transit commuters every rush hour.”
He said commuters would be better served by a system that could tell them in advance what track their trains will arrive on.