Passenger Trains > Visited the Moynihan Station for the Very First Time

Last Friday Feb 26th, 2021, I decided that after my job in Jersey City, I would take a huge detour home to check out the brand new Moynihan Station, the brand new Amtrak depot that is part of New York City Penn Station. I was very impressed with what I saw. I like how the acoustics were very clear. In addition, the facility was very clean. The display boards were pretty easy to read. I loved being able to see through the glass ceiling, something that was impossible across the street. What I wasn't a fan of was a lack of seating areas in the waiting room. I wasn't pleased about how you cannot board NJT trains directly from Moynihan Station, although there may be underground passageways that could bring passengers to Tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4 where NJT trains typically board from. I took pictures of the amazing brand new Moynihan Station-no trains though. Let's start off with the roll.

1. Entrance to the Moynihan Station on 8th Avenue and 32nd Street

2 and 3. The waiting room on the main floor

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More pictures of the waiting area. The Moynihan Train Hall in words is excellent!

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1. Waiting Room

2. Entrance on 32nd Street with Madison Square Garden in the background

3. The baggage check area

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1 and 2. View of the main waiting room from the balcony area

3. Waiting room with seats

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1. Display Information

2. 8th Ave and 32nd St Entrance at Dusk

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Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

And, thanks for the picture with the LIRR departure board info

Beautiful pictures. Guess we can sum up how busy Amtrak really is
without NJT passengers milling about. I looked up Train Hall and there 
is only one - >>>> Why can't it be Moynihan Train Station.
How about the platforms, guess the same width as Penn Station?

jeff56 Wrote:
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> How about the platforms, guess the same width as
> Penn Station?

No change to the platforms - new "hall" is basically lipstick on a pig.

For all the money spent on it, I'm not very impressed - yes, it is a vast improvement over the rest of Penn Station (pretty much anything would be), but it's mediocre architecture at best.  It looks like an okay airport terminal.  

Yea, it has too much airport terminal look.  Better than nothing.  But they obviously had no idea or no desire to give it the grandeur of a traditional train station...
Maybe too expensive to do it with the grand side windows like 30th st and GCT, so they went with the overhead plastic bubble lighting.   Also the painted flat metal signs are just plain cheap.    I also think Danial Patrick would have preferred it was called Penn Station, rather than have his name plastered everywhere so innappropriatey.

As I say, a lot better than the cave across the street, but dissappointing if u look at pix of the old Penn Station

WOW! This is Penn Station - Moynihan Train Hall - on a FRIDAY at 5:05 pm? I've never seen any NYC train station (Grand Central, the old Penn Station complex, subway stations etc.) so empty, yet Amtrak continues to operate that NEC with a heck of a lot of trains compared to the rest of its system. 

This situation reminds me of a passage in the biblical book of Ezra (3:12) where the younger rejoiced at the new temple but those who were old enough to remember the old one wept.

I see it as a basketball court with 10 holes in the floor. Notice the lack of LIRR passengers. Moynihan Concourse is way off the beaten path to the subway and most venues in Manhattan. It is not intended for NJT's use. There is no access to tracks 1 through 4, which are positioned much too far east. A very, narrow, jagged, and expensive passageway would have had to been built at NJT's expense. Even access to LIRR tracks 17 - 21 is via the West End Concourse, which itself does not access tracks 1 thru 4. 

Unlike Montreal and Philadelphia, there is no seating near the track gates, so there's plenty of room and opportunity for Amtrak to set up their Kindergarten lines, which is why they wanted it so bad. Wait until the Gate Dragons set up the big, authoritarian looking desk with the Maple Leaf flag for Canadian check in, which does not take place anywhere else from Yonkers and on up. 

The uneven loading from west justification of these escalators along the tracks, and that they are single-stream escalators all add up to extended unloading or loading times. 

Ergonomically poor, but it makes the Municipal Art Society and the Late Senator Moynihan's daughter very happy, thinking she is Jackie Kennedy saving GCT. 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/21 07:47 by joemvcnj.

That black framed entrance at 8th and 32nd?  Not very inviting in my mind.

If Amtrak decides to drop the baby blue color scheme and go back to red or another color in it's brand, will they be replacing all this new plastic? 

It is nice to see photos of it when it is new and fairly free from ads.  It is like a honeymoon period for those that like that sort of thing. But I venture to guess that Clear Channel or another advertising firm is looking at the space as a prime venue for marketing ads. The landlords will probably be scaling up soon, electronic and static ad spots in a number of places in and outside of the terminal.  

Somehow there are always complaints about any sort of progress and improvement.  Calling Moynihan "lipstick on a pig" is stupid.  Have you been there?  I doubt it.

You can't widen the platforms without taking out a track or two and that would cause further train congestion.  I'm talking before the pandemic.

Hence the need for NY Penn Station South for NJT's use. 

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-adoption-general-project-plan-transformative-empire-station-complex?fbclid=IwAR1L2cE9CO-NVo0b85OsQLS05IgUpnc-SAd2pUYiuFRcXNNBRQiVQxVdOvg

jp1822 Wrote:
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> WOW! This is Penn Station - Moynihan Train Hall -
> on a FRIDAY at 5:05 pm? I've never seen any NYC
> train station (Grand Central, the old Penn Station
> complex, subway stations etc.) so empty, yet
> Amtrak continues to operate that NEC with a heck
> of a lot of trains compared to the rest of its
> system. 

I'm less amazed by the lack of passengers in the Train Hall then I am by the lack of people on 8th Ave or 32nd street at 5:00 PM in Manhattan rush hour. The Train Hall is mostly reflecting our Pandemic reality.  What would it have looked like in 2019?.

wtsherman100 Wrote:
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> Somehow there are always complaints about any sort
> of progress and improvement.  Calling Moynihan
> "lipstick on a pig" is stupid.  Have you been
> there?  I doubt it.

Have I seen the new hall in person?  No, not yet - I did my best Kurt Russel impersonation and escaped from NYC in 2018 (quite prescient of me, don't ya think?).  However, I've spent countless hours over the previous 30 years in what I call the "pig", the existing sh-thole called Penn Station.  This shiny new glorified airline terminal does very little to alleviate the vast inadequacies of Penn Station - hence the "lipstick on a pig" comment, which criticizes the existing Penn Station (the "pig") more than the new Moynihan Hall (the "lipstick") - get it?