This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.<\/p>\n
Sign up<\/a> to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.<\/p>\n The feds are charging ahead with President Donald Trump\u2019s push to rebuild Penn Station<\/a>, but the MTA \u2014 which is the train hub\u2019s biggest tenant \u2014 has so far declined to join the cause.<\/p>\n Two weeks ago, Amtrak announced that NJ Transit had signed on as a \u201ckey partner\u201d in the transformation effort. That means the Garden State agency will have a seat at the table as the Trump administration picks a \u201cmaster developer\u201d to rebuild Penn<\/a>. A decision is expected in May.<\/p>\n Amtrak, the federally run national railroad, owns the station, but the MTA for years led a charge to redevelop the facility. The New York agency runs the Long Island Rail Road and six subway lines through Penn \u2014 and plans to add Metro-North service to the station once it completes its ongoing Penn Access project<\/a>.<\/p>\n MTA Chair Janno Lieber had commissioned plans in 2022 to redesign the station by combining its several levels into one contiguous room. He also planned to build a new entrance on Eighth Avenue and reconstruct the taxiway next to Madison Square Garden in order to bring natural light into the dingy train hall. Lieber convinced NJ Transit and Amtrak to sign an agreement to participate in the redesign.<\/p>\n But Lieber\u2019s plans stalled<\/a>, and last year Trump swooped in and took control of the project.<\/p>\n Now, Lieber has picked up his ball and gone home.<\/p>\n Speaking at the Citizen\u2019s Budget Commission breakfast in January, Andy Byford \u2014 a special adviser to Amtrak now leading the redesign effort \u2014 said he offered both the MTA and NJ Transit \u201cfull voting rights\u201d in the design competition. Only the latter accepted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe invited the MTA to have a seat at that same table,\u201d Byford said.<\/p>\n Amtrak and the federal transportation department said that the MTA remains involved in the project and regularly meets with Byford\u2019s team, but did not say whether it would officially join as a partner.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no love lost between Byford and Lieber. Byford resigned as NYC Transit president in 2020 after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo stripped his oversight of construction projects and gave them to Lieber, who was head of the MTA\u2019s construction department at the time.<\/p>\n MTA Chair Janno Lieber spent more than $500 million to build a new entrance and upgrade the 33rd Street corridor at Penn Station.<\/p>\n MTA<\/p>\n MTA and New York state officials said they\u2019ve already improved the northern half of Penn Station used by the LIRR. Lieber spent more than $500 million over the last decade to add a new entrance on Seventh Avenue and reconstruct the corridor along 33rd Street that runs next to the LIRR tracks. Cuomo also opened Moynihan Train Hall in 2021, which serves LIRR and Amtrak riders \u2014 but does not connect to NJ Transit\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n According to an information packet Amtrak sent to prospective bidders to redesign Penn Station in October, the feds have no plans to redo Lieber and Cuomo\u2019s work. Both the 33rd Street corridor and Moynihan Train Hall were specifically highlighted in the packet as sections of the station \u201cnot contemplated for inclusion\u201d in the overall redesign.<\/p>\n \u201cLIRR riders overwhelmingly like our new 33rd Street corridor, and our lease gives us the legal standing to protect the entire customer experience there,\u201d MTA spokesperson Mitch Schwartz wrote in a statement. \u201cNo matter what the federal government\u2019s process yields, we’ll be at the table to fight for their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, said the MTA still has leverage in the project because the agency has a lease in the station.<\/p>\n He noted NJ Transit has more to gain from the reconstruction. New Jersey riders rely on Penn Station\u2019s most cramped and outdated parts, including the notorious \u201cpit\u201d where riders crowd while waiting to find out which track their train is departing from before scurrying down to the platforms.<\/p>\n \u201c[NJ Transit] signed up for being a partner with Amtrak and the review of the teams and helping fund part of that, whereas the MTA has a lease that they would like to use as the basis of their negotiations and participation in it,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThey think that that protects their rights, but they\u2019re going to have to come to the table as part of this process.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell Moss, an urban planning professor at NYU who used to run its Rudin Center for Transportation, speculated that by not signing on as a partner to Trump\u2019s plan, Lieber was buying time until a new president was in the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a 20-year project,\u201d said Moss. \u201cBy the time they figure out the legal arrangement for this, Trump will be out of office.\u201d<\/p>\n NYC transportation news this week<\/p>\n Flatbush Avenue construction. City officials are asking drivers to avoid<\/a> the northern section of Flatbush Avenue between Grand Army Plaza and Livingston Street as the area undergoes a bus-friendly redesign.<\/p>\n A looming railroad worker strike. LIRR workers are preparing to strike next month<\/a> as negotiations with the MTA over pay increases have stalled.<\/p>\n From Brooklyn to Hollywood. What do \u201cThe Taking of Pelham 123,\u201d \u201cThe Warriors\u201d and \u201cComing to America\u201d have in common? They all have scenes filmed in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station. You can hear about why the Brooklyn station was a good place to shoot these films in this NYC Now episode.<\/a><\/p>\n New York City\u2019s new “Deliverista Hub.” It just opened.<\/a> The unused newsstand near City Hall was converted into a respite space for delivery workers to charge e-bikes, get free tune-ups and even legal advice.<\/p>\n Earth Day 2026. Get ready for the return of New York City\u2019s car-free Earth Day<\/a> on April 25, when dozens of streets across the five boroughs will transform into public pedestrian plazas.<\/p>\n Curious Commuter<\/p>\n Have a question for us? Use this form<\/a> to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!<\/p>\n Question from Louis in Manhattan<\/p>\n Are the “fare required” signs on MTA buses a result of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign proposal to make buses free?<\/p>\n Answer<\/p>\n No. Those digital messages on the city’s fleet of buses date back to 2020, when state officials suspended fare collection for six months in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The MTA opted to make the fare free to protect bus drivers from getting sick by requiring passengers to board through the rear door. After that six-month period, the transit agency brought fares back to the buses<\/a> and began displaying the \u201cfare required\u201d messages, which officials said was necessary because many people didn\u2019t realize they had to keep paying.<\/p>\n Louis\u2019 question comes as New York Post reporter Craig McCarthy posed a similar query on social media<\/a>, wondering if the digital signs on the buses were prompted by the mayor\u2019s campaign pledge to make all the city\u2019s buses free<\/a>. But in reality, New Yorkers have been seeing those messages for nearly six years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-192626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}