On Saturday, May 10 – 139 years to the date after the “golden spike” was driven into the final tie that created the nation’s first transcontinental railroad – Amtrak held the first ever National Train Day at Penn Station in New York and Union Stations in Washington, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

The Harlem Globetrotters made an appearance at Penn Station and the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) live-blogged the event at Union Station in Washington.

On Saturday, the Times gave more cause to the celebration when it reported a surge in mass transit riders across the country. According to the article, transit managers are predicting growth of 5 percent or more this year, the largest increase in at least a decade.

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

We’ve also included links to weekend stories about the Amtrak announcer at Penn Station and a repair project on the Northeast Corridor.

Read “Over the Bustle of the Everyday Commute, Her Voice Has Guided the Way,” by Vincent M. Mallozzi for The New York Times

Read “Straightening Out the Northeast Corridor,” by Ken Belson for The New York Times

Read “Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit,” by Clifford Krauss for The New York Times

The construction of Moynihan Station is the single most critical civic project planned for New York City this decade. Penn Station, this country’s busiest transportation center, is overcapacity and inefficient. A modern, state-of-the-art train station would revitalize the surrounding district and be the most effective catalyst for development on the Far West Side of Manhattan. What will it take to fully realize Senator Moynihan’s vision?

Panelists include: Kent Barwick, president, Municipal Art Society; Richard L. Brodsky, Assemblyman, New York State Assembly; Anna Hayes Levin, chair, Community Board 4; and Daniel A. Biederman, president, 34th Street Partnership. Moderator: Charles Bagli, reporter, The New York Times.

Tuesday, May 13, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society
$15, $12 MAS members. Reservations and prepayment required. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075.

We have written before about the critical need to invest in this nation’s infrastructure
(here, and here and discussed it at our April 9 panel ). The Sunday New York Times “most e-mailed” story is Thomas Friedman’s opinion piece on this crisis and the election.

In his article he explains that while the rest of the world is investing in “nation building” and their infrastructure, we are not. He says, “If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.”

He continues, “We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.”

Read “Who Will Tell the People?” by Thomas Friedman for The New York Times

The Observer is running two stories today suggesting that Governor Paterson is poised to tap Chris Ward as the head of the Port Authority, the agency that he proposes to oversee the development of Moynihan Station. According to Eliot Brown, Christopher O. Ward, currently the managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York (member of the Friends of Moynihan Station), could be appointed Friday afternoon.

According to Em Whitney in “Paterson Sympathizes With the Dolans Over M.S.G. ,” Paterson is moving the project to the Port Authority because that agency “has a better chance of getting it done quickly, and I hope that we can start construction quickly enough that we can reverse plans that exist.” The reversal of “plans” he refers to are MSG’s plans to renovate their current arena instead of constructing a new arena in the Farley Post Office. MSG staying in place prevents the construction of a new Penn Station. According to the article, it seems that the Dolans pulled out of the project because of the pace of development, “I think the Dolans finally got fed up with the delays,” Paterson said.

While it may be a little early to be optimistic, this move could be good news for the Moynihan project. The Port Authority can provide additional funding and has experience in completing large complex transportation projects. We will certainly have more information and analysis of the possibility of PANYNJ taking over the project as it develops.

Read “Gov. Paterson Ready to Tap Chris Ward as Port Authority Director,” by Eliot Brown for The New York Observer
Read “Paterson Sympathizes With the Dolans Over M.S.G.,” by Em Whitney for The New York Observer

On Wednesday at the MAS, architect Hugh Hardy introduced a wide ranging panel discussion entitled “World Class Train Stations,” which featured Christopher Brown, author of Still Standing: A Century of Urban Train Station Design, and Andrew Whalley, partner at Grimshaw Architects and designer of Waterloo and Paddington stations in London. The moderator was Alexandros Washburn, chief urban designer, NYC Department of City Planning, and a former aid to the late Senator Moynihan.

The night was full of big questions (“What makes a train station world class?”), thoughtful answers (“the clarity of use”), philosophical ponderings (the station as theater stage), and some classic Moynihan anecdotes. It provided enough content to feed New Penn Station for weeks.

We decided to start with a recurring theme of the discussion: How do we define "civic"?

Brown noted that the architecture of train stations is often a functionalist response – and it is possible for a station to fulfill its function, but not rise to a civic level. He also pointed out that it is easy to mistake Beaux Arts grandeur for “civicness” and asked the audience to think about how our notion of civic virtue is changing. “I don’t know what civic means anymore,” he said.

Washburn defined civic virtue as “the expression in form of the things that you value – the embodiment of what we consider important in our city.” He pointed out that the acanthus leaf was an inspiration for the long colonnade of Corinthian columns on the Farley Post Office – an icon of the Beaux Arts notion of civic – and argued that our society’s present concerns about sustainability and the ecology of things is somewhat of a symbolic return to the acanthus leaf. Sustainability is a civic gesture – and an expression of green is the new civic.

It turns out that defining “civic” is a matter of practical importance. After all, “the principle public purpose of the proposed Expanded Moynihan Station Project is a civic project to create an iconic and monumental, and more efficient, transportation gateway to and from New York City,” according to the Draft Scope of Work. And the development rights sought by the developers depend upon the creation of a station with “iconic and distinctive civic architecture,” a train hall with “civic grandeur” and “civic amenity,” and the achievement of certain “civic standards.”

Green design is most certainly a civic gesture. Whalley showed the audience several examples of energy efficient train stations, including Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station (which requires no mechanical ventilation in its train hall!).

But he also noted that a “truly sustainable” train station is not just a place for transport. It is a vital node of the city, a public place and social center, and a symbol of its aspirations.

So how will New York define civic?

Join us for our next program on May 13: Moynihan Station: What Needs To Happen Next?”

Eliot Brown reports that Related and Vornado (the Venture) have asked the city and state to back a loan to build a new MSG in the annex of the Farley Post Office.

In this option, the state and city could be saddled with the cost of the arena—said to be in the range of $900 million to $1 billion—should the larger redo of Penn Station ultimately fall apart.

The plan for a Penn Station remake, part of a larger proposal named Moynihan Station, seemed to all but fall apart when Madison Square Garden said it was staying in place and proceeding with a $500 million renovation of its arena. Without moving, a complete redo of the station was all but impossible. The Garden said it pulled out because it did not see any realistic hope of the plan coming together any time soon, given the hundreds of millions in unsecured funding.

Under the developers’ latest proposal, the developers could potentially start building the new arena for the Garden before the larger Moynihan plan ever came together, as the state and city would assume the risk on the money for the arena. Previously, the developers wanted to wait until the project came together before proceeding with the arena, as it would cost them hundreds of millions with potentially no gain should the deal have ultimately fallen apart.

A spokesman for Madison Square Garden, Barry Watkins, said the Garden was proceeding with its renovation and had no plans to move.

Read “Vornado, Related Try to Lure Garden Back to Moynihan Station Table,” by Eliot Brown in the Observer

Around 500,000 people travel through Penn Station each day and, as the New York Times recently editorialized, these “veteran commuters deserve some hope that the new Moynihan complex is not just another urban fantasy.”

To that end the MAS has been distributing our spring program brochures and chatting it up with Penn Station riders. We’ll be there again next Tuesday – and we would really appreciate your help.

Last week, we distributed several hundred MAS spring program brochures outside Penn Station during the evening rush hour. As one staff member offered each person a brochure, she asked,

“Would you like a better train station?”

“God, yes!” said one woman.

“Of course!” said another.

“Do you think it can happen?” asked a businessman. The staff member told him about Jill Jonnes’s recent talk concerning the tremendous obstacles that were overcome when the first Penn Station was built. “Things were no easier then,” she said, paraphrasing Jonnes, “we just have a different set of problems today.”

A few people walked by, then doubled back to get a brochure once they understood the message.

Please join us in Penn Station next Tuesday, May 6, and volunteer a bit of your time between 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.

E-mail ewerbe@mas.org for more details if you would like to volunteer.

On Tuesday, the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams ran a segment on Amtrak’s rising popularity and the challenges it faces as it looks to improve and expand its existing lines. This includes an expansion of the popular Acela line and a “wish list” of expansion projects – including expanding the Northeast Corridor to Charlotte. But much needed infrastructure improvements to existing services are severely threatened by the lack of support from the federal government. “For the cost of 2 or 3 highway interchanges we could develop a corridor between two major cities,” said Alex Kumant, Amtrak CEO. The segment was part of an ongoing NBC series on America’s infrastructure crisis, an issue frequently discussed on this blog.

Link to NBC Nightly News segment

Read “MAS Panel Recap: What if They Gave a Crisis

Last week we posed the question: “What Train Station is More Horrible Than Penn Station?”

Penn Station has been described as confusing, menacing, and inhumane. It’s been called a rat warren, a stygian chamber, and an underground strip mall. The nation’s busiest rail terminal is crowded, it lacks amenities, there are not enough platforms, not enough bathrooms…the list goes on. That's not even getting into the horrific pedestrian environment surrounding the station.

In our view Penn Station is the Absolute Worst Train Station Ever. Yep, that's right.

The question is: What station is worse than Penn Station? Or if you'd like to admit that Penn Station is #1, what would be #2?

Here are the top nominations:

Johnstown Amtrak Station, Johnstown, PA

The horrible thing about this station is that this historic and beautifully-proportioned 1916 waiting room is closed to the public (see picture at right). There might be a telling correlation in this rust belt city's declining economy and the decrease in railroad passengers over the second half of the 20th Century. There may also be some hope that a reviving economy in Johnstown and other small towns may mean a revival in intercity rail and sustainable transportation.

Union Station, Chicago, IL

I have learned to navigate New York's Penn Station in its original form and now since the 1950's, so while it's presently ugly and often crowded, I think Chicago's Union Station, at least for long-distance Amtrak patrons, is worse. Coach and sleeping car passengers are corralled into separate holding pens with insufficent seating at peak times. Many are making connections here with waits of several hours. Since demolition of part of the station years ago, the soaring main waiting room is now too far away from the track gates to be of much use (NPS note: nearly every picture of the train hall shows it empty). Most trains are accessed from terminal platforms, necessitating long walks along narrow platforms for those accommodated towards the front of the trains. Coupled with that, Union Station is poorly run by the station personnel, while Penn Station is rather well operated given what the staff has to work with.

Both are excellent nominations, but Penn Station is still #1. We tend to agree with this reader, who nominated Penn Station because it “guarantees an unpleasant arrival and miserable departure by rail from the best city in the world.” Among her reasons:

Penn has neither signs nor a direction to an information booth for people who do not speak English.

Signs directing people to the street are confusing. There are no signs informing a person as to what level of the station one is on.

Bathroom facilities are inadequate.

The information system about arriving trains is archaic. Access to a train, when one learns its track, borders on the dangerous: passengers surge towards the one narrow stairway to the platform. The only way to attempt to board an Amtrak train in comfort is to tip a Redcap in order to be escorted to the train before it is announced. I do not mind paying someone for service, but this is unfair to the public.

Wednesday, April 30, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at The Municipal Art Society

Join Hugh Hardy, FAIA, founder H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, LLC, Alexandros Washburn, chief urban designer, NYC Department of City Planning and former public works advisor to the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, photographer Christopher Brown, author of Still Standing: A Century of Urban Train Stations, and architect Andrew Whalley, partner in charge of the New York office of Grimshaw Architects, for a wide-ranging discussion on the design of today's train stations and those to come. $15, $12 MAS members. Purchase tickets or call 212-935-2075.

Coverage of our previous Moynihan Station programs:

”Jill Jonnes Bucks Up the Moynihan Station Crowd"

”What if They Gave a Crisis…”