Penn Station 2027 project: Amtrak solicits proposals for major overhaul

With an ambitious schedule ahead, Amtrak and the U.S. Department of Transportation say they’ve met several key deadlines in the latest effort to rebuild Penn Station in Manhattan into a destination – not a miserable embarrassment.

U.S. DOT and Amtrak officials said Thursday that three key milestones were met this month in the New York Penn Station “Transformation” Project, with a goal of starting construction by the end of 2027.

The biggest one is opening up the process to companies interested in being named “master developer” for the new Penn Station, which was promised by the end of this month.

Could this process result in the kind of station commuters wouldn’t despise using daily?

“We’re rebuilding Penn Station and we are tapping our partners in the private sector to make it happen on time and on budget,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement. “USDOT is cutting through the red tape to meet our ambitious timeline.”

“I’m confident we’ll bring together the greatest minds to create an unmatched symbol of American architecture and infrastructure for visitors and daily commuters to enjoy for decades to come,” he said.

On Thursday Amtrak and the USDOT released a solicitation for a master developer for the Penn Station project through Amtrak’s Procurement Portal.

That starts the process for what Amtrak officials called a competition to seek credible proposals for ideas to redevelop the station.

The basic criteria include eliminating the current dank, subterranean multiple levels and replacing them with a single level concourse that utilizes natural light streaming into the building.

Unlike past proposals that only proposed changing the building appearance and passenger concourses, this project includes track and platform level infrastructure. Under this concept proposals must address what officials called the “train shed,” and operational aspects of the station.

Those can be the levels where passengers experience most of the problems, from narrow crowded platforms to skinny stairways and escalators to and from the surface.

For NJ Transit, the MTA and Amtrak, officials want concepts to look at how to improve the flow of train traffic, including the use of “through running” where trains drop off or pick up passengers and continue on instead of parking at a platform.

Those improvements will have to be made in the footprint of the existing Penn Station complex, officials said.

That news is a relief to residents and businesses of the surrounding Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood that feared wholesale condemning of property for multiple plans that have been proposed since 2014, and included expanding the station.

Except for those parameters, Penn Station is a blank canvas for designers. That includes no assumptions about whether Madison Square Garden, which sits atop the station, remains in place or is relocated, officials said.

Penn Station New York, the busiest train station in the western hemisphere, is used by more than 200 million people annually who ride Amtrak, NJ Transit, Long Island RailRoad and Metro North trains. Officials from those railroads are involved in this process.

Penn Station has been derided since the 1966 demolition of the original ancient Roman-style station in favor of a depressing all-underground facility.

The last big public project design competition was held by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in September 2016, and produced five concepts to replace the midtown Manhattan bus terminal.

None of those designs were selected and the Port Authority designed its own “building in place” concept that keeps the new bus terminal on the property that houses the existing bus terminal. Construction started on that on May 29.

USDOT and Amtrak also announced selection of advisors for the public-private partnership, legal and financial advisor aspects of the project.

A service optimization study also is being started to study how to accommodate rail passenger service growth at New York Penn Station and the surrounding region.

That study will include added train capacity from the $16 billion Gateway tunnel project, which will build two new tunnels and rehabilitate the existing two tunnels between New Jersey and Penn Station.

The next step for firms that submit letters of interest is to submit formal proposals in spring 2026, which officials will evaluate and take to Amtrak’s board for a final decision and run them past President Donald Trump and Duffy.

Officials envision the Penn Station transformation to be a public-private partnership, funded by a combination of public grants and low-cost loans and private sector financing.

A $43 million federal grant was announced in August to fund work such as developing the project and doing preliminary engineering and environmental work.

The process is being overseen by Andy Byford, special advisor to the Amtrak board and a former head of the MTA in New York.

“This will be one of the biggest and most significant construction projects in U.S. history, and we want the most skilled and knowledgeable partners to help make it a success,” Byford said in a statement. “By working with the private sector, we will be working with advisors who focus on the project’s goals while minimizing costs for taxpayers.”

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