Since taking on the Penn Station Transformation Project, I’ve spoken with thousands of New Yorkers and visitors. People are quick to point out the dated station’s obvious shortcomings: the narrow and crowded platforms, the dysfunctional rat maze layout, or the dilapidated amenities. You can imagine then how well received our renderings for the new and improved station were when announced earlier this summer. Finally, New York will have the world-class station it deserves.

So why are some of the city and state’s stakeholders trying to undermine the project? The last thing the public wants to hear about is bureaucratic infighting. But for the sake of this project, New Yorkers need to understand how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and allies such as Reinvent Albany are peddling false narratives.

The MTA and NJTransit are the two largest tenants at Penn Station. Both understandably want a say in the project and to minimize impacts on their customers and I certainly want them both at the table.

That’s why Amtrak has sought to make each full project partners in the overhaul. We asked both to sign agreements — just like the MTA once required when it led the project. Unlike the MTA, Amtrak signed on as a full project partner at the time. Now with Amtrak at the helm, NJT has signed the agreement to ensure the 130,000 New Jerseyans utilizing the station each day are represented, while the MTA, on the other hand, has refused.

We have been getting closer to an agreement with the help of Gov. Hochul’s team, but progress has still been slower than this multi-billion-dollar effort deserves. To get the agreement moving, we requested simple preliminary responses from the MTA, including “What are your space requirements, and can you share your maintenance agreements?” that have gone unanswered.

All the while, we have made one effort after another to address the MTA’s concerns.

Last week, Reinvent Albany published a nine-month-old, outdated internal draft agreement with no relevance to our current negotiations with the MTA. They also took issue with a bipartisan congressional amendment — which passed out of committee 64-1 — that would enable Amtrak to use a financing tool common to large projects in New York City. Not helpful, relevant, or reinventive for a better New York State. But it doesn’t have to be this way with either organization.

Now is an opportunity for the MTA to silence the naysayers by standing with us as a constructive partner.

As of now, this unproductive behavior from the MTA threatens to saddle taxpayers with extra costs should the project be delayed and may relegate millions to using the deteriorating station longer than they have had to – which is decades too long.

Ultimately, the new Penn Station will be built — the president is going to see to it. With unprecedented leadership from the federal government and the support of our chosen master developer, we have met every project deadline and intend to break ground next year. We are on track to deliver with or without them and we’d like them to share in the glory.

This project is bigger than us all. We are going to leave a mark on Manhattan that will survive generations and benefit passengers and commuters alike.

I’m determined to do what’s best for New Yorkers and this city by building the new Penn Station it so richly needs and deserves.

Byford is project lead and special advisor to Amtrak’s Board for the transformation of Penn Station.