Amtrak (as successor to the Pennsylvania Railroad companies) is legally responsible for keeping open, maintaining, and policing the "Pennsylvania Passageway", as it is called, according to a multi-party easement and jurisdictional agreement dating from 1935.

The passageway was originally opened in 1919, coinciding with the construction of the BMT Broadway subway line. In the 1930s, when the 6th Ave. IND subway line was added to the mix, the 33rd St. PATH terminal (dating from 1908) was moved one block south to W. 32nd St. A new easement and jurisdictional agreement was entered into among a couple of Pennsylvania Railroad entities, the City of New York (which granted the franchises for constructing railroads under the streets), the predecessor of the MTA, the owner of the Saks 34th St. department store (at the NW corner of Broadway & W 33rd St.), and of course Gimbel's (which gained underground entrances on two levels and display windows along the Pennsylvania Passageway). This 1935 agreement provided that the Pennsylvania Railroad (now Amtrak) was responsible to maintain this passage and keep it open at all times for people to transverse it "free of molestation and interference", as I recall. That agreement contained detailed drawings showing who was responsible for what areas, including, for example, who provided power for which electric lights.

Nearly 20 years ago, the 33rd PATH terminal was rehabilitated, along with the BMT and IND subway stations in conjunction with the construction of Manhattan Mall. (I remember how prior to this, because public policy was not to interfere with the civil liberties of the "undomiciled", patrons of this station were forced to run a narrow gauntlet between blue-painted plywood barricades lined by crack-and-heroin-fueled squatters pressing up against patrons and insisting that the patrons give them money. (The squatters were allowed to camp out behind the barricades, and no sanitary facilities were provided for them.) Due to such policies the PATH terminal had descended into foul-smelling and dangerous hell hole. I'm sure that helped to drive Gimbels out of business, as well as driving away patrons from the PATH trains and the subways.)

Among the improvements made around 1990 was the construction of a new Port Authority police substation for the 33rd St. terminal which coincided with an enlightened change in policy that combined offering social services to those in need with proactive policing to enforce reasonable rules of conduct and resulted in ejection of those who misbehaved from the station.

I recollect that the developers had proposed re-opening the Pennsylvania Passageway, but they got bogged down in discussions with the City which inexplicably refused to accept their offer to reconstruct the sidewalk that formed the roof of the passageway. (PATH also was frustrated by the City regarding sidewalks, and they gave up on plans to create a skylight allowing natural light to cascade down into the stations from Greeley Square park above, that would have illuminated a marvelous new sculpture consisting of spheres affixed to exposed girders and visible from all levels. That was a "Green" idea that was ahead of its time.)

Meanwhile, without any prior discussion or review, one night a contractor for PATH put up a cinder block wall across the easterly entrance to the Pennsylvania Passageway, then covered it with ceramic tiles, leaving an unmarked metal door that indicates the location of the passageway.

This unofficial and unsanctioned wall-building is not mentioned in the amendment to the 1935 agreement required for these projects, which amendment also contains no mention of the closure of the Pennsylvania Passageway, nor are there any other official documents that I am aware of that deal with this closure of the corridor.

On the other hand, the amendment to the 1935 agreement (executed in 1989 or 1990) details, with attached drawings, every other modification (all of which had been under discussion for a couple of years) including, among other things, a PATH handicapped elevator entrance, a new staircase and escalator and new underground entrances to the mall from both the subway and PATH levels, as well as the new police substation. Moreover, it provided for reconfiguring and rebuilding the connections between the subway lines and the PATH terminal. It called for no changes to the Pennsylvania Passageway.

New York City has changed much for the better in the last 20 years, and now is the time to tear down this temporary wall and to rehabilitate and re-open the long-neglected Pennsylvania Passageway between Herald/Greeley Square and Pennsylvania Station.