New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has unveiled a plan to restart the long-stalled renovation and expansion of New York City?s Pennsylvania Station, the busiest train hub in the US.
The plan calls for a new waiting room in a former Post Office Building on Eighth Avenue across from the existing station.
Cuomo is aiming to create a new public/private partnership with a developer to expand the existing station and build a new hub across the street in a massive former post office and mail-sorting facility.
Architecture firms SOM and HOK have both been associated with previous expansion plans, but Cuomo's selected developer will name its own architect for the project.
The Madison Square Garden arena sits on top of the existing station.
The developer would also control retail spaces in the facilities and gain substantial development rights for new office or residential space above or near the former postal building. The governor is committing $325 million (£222 million) in government funds for the project, but the total project is expected to cost $3 billion (£2 billion).
New entrances would help bring natural light into the underground station.
The station currently handles 650,000 daily travelers, though it was only designed to handle 200,000 people a day.
Penn Station, as it is commonly called, is located underneath Madison Square Garden, Manhattan?s largest arena. It serves Amtrak, the US national railway, New Jersey Transit, which carries passengers from the west, an...