The new Pennsylvania Station was originally due to open its doors this year, but the only noticeable progress has been the building’s renaming for its late benefactor, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. So what’s going on?

While months and even years have passed with little progress, the press has been largely silent. One exception to this was a recent piece in the New York Observer, in which the senator’s daughter, Maura Moynihan, announced the creation of The Citizens Committee for Moynihan Station. She feared the project would not happen without more public attention.

Some background: The late Senator, a believer in the power of great architecture and great transportation infrastructure, managed to obtain a big appropriation of money to convert the grand old Beaux-Arts James A. Farley U.S. Post Office on 33rd St. between 8th and 9th avenues into a new above-ground train station. It would augment and help open up the underground rabbit warren that is the present day station, which sits underneath Madison Square Garden and some office towers. The present day Penn Station would become largely for the commuter railways, while Amtrak passengers would use the above-ground station on the other side of Eighth Avenue.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has designed the new station, and the plans look great, with a dramatic steel and glass atrium breaking out of the middle of the block-long building. The effective Empire State Development Corporation, through its subsidiary Moynihan Station Development Corporation, is overseeing the project. Under the current plans, it will own the building and lease it out to tenants, including Amtrak and the Post Office, which will retain use of a portion.

“This project is happening, it’s moving forward,” said Charles Stump, vice president at the Moynihan Station Development Corporation. “Anytime you have a huge transaction, there are a lot of details to be worked out.”

Nevertheless, Stump acknowledged that a number of difficulties were slowing the project down. Empire State Development Corporation and the Post Office have signed a letter of intent for the Post Office to sell the property to the state of New York for $230 million, and one $10 million payment has already been made, Stump said. But the actual sale has not happened. Holding it back are disagreements over who will pay for what in the new station.

“The Post Office doesn’t want to pay for certain things that they think we should be responsible for, as landlords, and we think they should be responsible for costs that are associated with them,” Stump said. “There are a lot of open issues that are still being discussed.”

Another difficulty involves Amtrak, which is supposed to be “the anchor tenant,” Stump said. Amtrak’s relatively new president, David Gunn, is focusing on nuts and bolts issues like track repair, and is apparently reluctant to pay some of the costs of moving into the new station. In an interview recently, Gunn seemed to indicate the new station was not a priority.

Stump said he was confident these issues would be resolved by the fall, and he said the corporation planned to hire a developer for the project by December. But civic leaders, political officials and editorial writers should not sit back and passively wait. They should focus attention on this project, lest it get caught in unending bureaucratic battles.

There are several reasons why a new central train station is vital for the city’s and region’s future.

Breathing Space

The new Moynihan Station will not add more track capacity and if anything, it underscores the need for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson. But to anyone who has ever attempted to thread up and down the narrow staircases and escalators at the present Penn Station, onto or from narrow platforms, it will not be news that the present Penn Station is uncomfortable and unpleasant due to its tortuous internal circulation patterns. The numerous choke points show just how little thought was put into the station’s construction, in the aftermath of the destruction of the old Pennsylvania station in the mid 1960s.

The new Moynihan Station will resolve many of these problems by clearly separating commuter rail and inter-city train travel, allowing passengers of all sorts to move in a less congested and more coherent environment. This is no small thing.

The Far West Side

Relocating the region’s central inter-city train station and commuter rail station one avenue over to the West will boost the prospects of successfully developing the Far West Side. Although other transit projects are necessary to this redevelopment plan, a new central train station one avenue over will be a great portal to the West Side, significantly boosting the prospects of the development of the Far West Side.

Beyond Beauty

Vincent Scully, the esteemed architecture critic, famously wrote that with the old Pennsylvania station, “One entered the city like a god.” With its replacement, “One scuttles in now like a rat.” So very true. And it highlights the fact that the new Moynihan station would again give the nation a grand gateway into New York City, something the city has lacked for decades, and of which we could all be proud.

But we should not let this lead us to believe that these are simply questions of aesthetics, without practical importance. Ultimately, how something looks and feel affects how and whether people will use it. Under David Gunn’s leadership at NYC Transit, we saw that when stations are clean and more attractive, people used the subways more, surpassing planners’ projections.

A similar transformation can happen with train travel. There is clearly a need for good and better inter-city train travel in many parts of the country, but particularly the Northeast. Around 40 percent of Amtrak’s total passengers travel through Penn Station. But even people who are accustomed to the present underground maze find it a confusing and oppressive experience. The new Moynihan Station would be a way of not only introducing people to a great city in an appropriate manner, but to increasing the appeal of train travel. While I applaud Gunn’s focus on the basics, he should not overlook the importance of allowing passengers to move in a spacious and relaxed environment, and providing a new home to the nation’s central and busiest train station.

We should all keep our attention on the process to make sure it happens.

–Alex Marshall, Senior Fellow, Regional Plan Association