Dive brief:
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Amtrak Board of Directors on Wednesday named Penn Transportation Partners, a partnership between design, development and construction firms Halmar and Skanska, as the lead developer for the renovation of New York’s Penn Station.
- The $8 billion project includes expanding track capacity, a new Eighth Avenue entrance to a new train hall, and upgrading the station’s existing underground structure.
- The Federal Railroad Administration also announced $200 million in additional funding for the New York Penn Station Transformation Project. Construction is expected to begin next year once contracts and permits are finalized, according to a news release.
Diving knowledge:
“We are one step closer to delivering a world-class travel hub that commuters and travelers have dreamed of for decades,” Duffy said in a statement.
Owned and served by Amtrak, Penn Station also serves New Jersey Transit and the Long Island Rail Road. The station opened in 1910 and was reconfigured in the 1960s after the original structure was demolished. Penn Station’s new design “is inspired by this lost architectural gem,” Amtrak and DOT said in a joint news release.
A former post office building on Eighth Avenue was reconfigured and reopened in 2021 as Moynihan Train Hall, serving Amtrak and the LIRR. Penn Station’s new design will accommodate the train hall, according to the announcement.
Last year, the DOT reassigned Amtrak’s Andy Byford, hired in 2023 to oversee high-speed rail development, as a special adviser to Amtrak’s board of directors. He was in charge of the redevelopment of Penn Station and oversaw the competitive procurement process. He previously led the Toronto Transit Commission, the New York City Transit Authority and Transport for London.
“The rapid completion of a rigorous procurement process represents more than meeting a very ambitious milestone; it demonstrates that Amtrak and USDOT are capable of making this vision a reality,” Byford said in a statement.
However, construction on the Hudson Tunnel project to build a new two-track tunnel and rehabilitate the existing 116-year-old North River Tunnel, which carries intercity Amtrak passenger trains and New Jersey Transit commuter trains there from Penn Station, was halted for about a month earlier this year when the Trump administration withheld funds.
Funding is flowing again. The Gateway Development Commission, which is in charge of the project, awarded a $1.3 billion contract in April to drill the tunnel’s two new tubes.
