Moynihan Train Hall is an expansion of New York City's Pennsylvania Station into the adjacent James A. Farley Building, the city's former main post office building. Located between Eighth Avenue, Ninth Avenue, 31st Street, and 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, the annex provides new access to most of Penn Station's platforms for Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road passengers, serving 17 of the station's 21 tracks. The hall is named for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the U.S. Senator who had originally championed the plan.
The 486,000 sq ft (45,200 m2) complex was built to alleviate congestion in Penn Station, which saw 650,000 daily riders before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The $1.6 billion renovation restored the Beaux-Arts Farley Building, a designated landmark, and added a central atrium with a glass roof. In addition, Moynihan Train Hall includes retail space, a 320-seat waiting area, public restrooms, and three works of art.
The project had been in consideration since the early 1990s, with the first blueprints having been made public in 1993. However, several previous plans had failed because of a lack of funding and logistical difficulties. Amtrak withdrew as a tenant in 2004, but returned after the Farley Building was sold to the New York state government in 2006. A first phase, involving an expansion of a concourse under the Farley Building, started in 2010 and was completed in June 2017. Construction of the train hall proper commenced in 2017. The train hall opened January 1, 2021.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
