Do you think this new tunnel will fix New York‘s bottleneck? 🤔

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the Penn Station problem could’ve been easier to solve if they hadn’t leveled the above ground portion to build Madison Square Garden.

I think that the City has since 1964 realized that the demolition of the legacy art deco building ( built back in 1910 ) has been a colossal mistake.  It was actually bigger than the current structure

The most amazing thing is that this whole system works as good as it does. It was built over 100 years ago, has multiple problem, antiquated and well worn equipment and still works to a point. It definitely needs to be fixed. Actually it needed to be updated years ago, but at least it looks like progress is being made. Lets hope that politics does not interfere and delay or halt this project.

My brother & I recently visited the NY Transit Museum in Brooklyn.  What struck us the most is how much the NY subway system contributed to the economic development of NY City & the surrounding areas.  For example, in 1930, just on 2 billion (yes, with a "B") people rode the NY subway system, an average of about 5.4 million riders per day.  Many were migrant construction workers heading into the city to build the now iconic NYC skyline

Fun Fact - Empire State Building was built in just 13 months in 1930-31 !!

The NY subway gave the workers access to cheaper areas to live around NYC and a fast & affordable way to get to & from work.  Fair enough, that might not be the case anymore, but it does highlight the importance & impact of having an effective public transportation infrastructure.

The Gateway project is a positive step to keep the economic momentum going in NYC & the NE Corridor.  We need more far-sighted infrastructure ideas like this in the US.

And if you have a chance, go visit the NY Transit Museum.

Several years ago, I lived in New Jersey and took NJTransit's Pascack Valley Line, changing at Secaucus into Penn Station. It was an effort, often very busy, but you got used to it. Though people hate Penn Station, they know they must put up with it for their commute. Making Penn Station more passenger-friendly is nice, but without increasing its train capacity, the same problems will continue to exist, and possibly get worse when the station becomes more friendly and entices more passengers.

I spent most of my career in the rail industry, and the new Hudson River twin-tunnel is a step in the right direction, but there is still so much to be done. One possibility is to connect Newark directly to Grand Central (maybe another tunnel(s) farther north), allowing some trains to bypass Penn Station altogether. That would greatly ease congestion and increase capacity, but that would be another multi-billion dollar project that currently doesn't have the politics to be considered.

I have always wondered what the city might have looked like if another state line wasn’t right over the Hudson

Alas, the ultimate solution to the Penn Station problem is to essentially move Madison Square Garden to a new location and essentially restoring as much as possible the old Pennsylvania Station layout. But that would cost another US$15 to US$17 billion to pull off, and James Dolan, the current owner of MSG, is extremely unwilling to move MSG given he spent over US$1.2 billion in 2012 dollars on a massive modernization of the current building.

I'd recommend building a new MSG at Hudson Yards (which is already well-connected by recent subway lines) and building a new Pennsylvania Station from scratch in the same Art Deco style that made the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center so well-inown.

One of the things that made Penn Station so crowded was that trains from the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) also used that facility. So Penn Station was filling up with commumters from Long Island, in addition to those from New Jersey and the rest of the US via Amtrak. It took over a decade of construction but now there is a new LIRR station under Grand Central Station at 42nd Street and Lexington Ave. So many Lond Islanders can now avoid Penn Station if they work on the Eastside of Manhattan.  Additionally, the old US post office, right across the street from Penn Station, on 8th Ave, was retrofitted  into a light filled Amtrak station named the Moynihan train hall. So Amtrak passengers can avoid the rabbit warren of Penn Station. There is even a waiting room for some LIRR passengers as well. So there already has been some improvemnet for passengers who had to go through Penn Station, but there is still so much to be done.

When I used Penn Station, I always kept my eyes on the board.
As soon as I saw which track appeared on the board, I bee-lined to that track without waiting for the fuckin' announcement.

The interesting subtext in this video is the guy's rush to get heavy machinery in the ground and start driving stakes so it doesn't get canceled again.  He recognizes that the rough-and-tumble world of American politics makes getting anything big and long-term done very difficult.  Especially given the incoming administration, he is wise to try to get it to the too-expensive-to-cancel-now point.  Hell, give me a shovel if it helps!

I still wish Madison Square Garden would be relocated to a nearby destination with direct access to Pennsylvania Station. MSG has taken the majority of Penn Station space, and there is no room for natural light.

When my wife and I came to New York last year we came into the Moynihan Train Hall which was VERY nice, very clean and easy to maneuver. I havn't been in the old Penn Station in a long time but I remember it as very dark and dirty.

You barely touched on Moynihan hall being done! The Acela and LIRR tracks over there are beautiful.

"Arguably one of the US's most important cities"

As someone who grew up in the area - this is probably a half century past overdue. It's so badly overdue that it prevents a lot of people from tolerating going into NYC to enjoy it for a day trip. Where it should be faster for me to take a train into NYC, because of the delays of this tunnel (even when they had all 3 open), it is almost worth driving in. I do disagree with refurbishing NY Penn Station Hall though. The focus should be first to increase capacity by expanding the rail lines that can be there - then make it pretty. Or make it in a way that allows ease of expansion (as easy as expansion gets in NYC).

The Moynahan Train Hall has fixed some of the Penn Station situation. It's fabulous looking.

It amazes me that things take years to build now vs 100 years ago. I remember watching and learning that we built stuff like this in a year or two and now it takes 20 years.

"it's arguably one of America's most important cities"

wow that's a real hot take right there

Nice video! Not from NYC, but we are having somewhat similar issues with our subway here in Montreal canada.