The Trump administration plans to put up $8 billion to rebuild Penn Station, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced during a Senate hearing Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The announcement marked the first time the feds have indicated how much they\u2019ll spend to reconstruct the dilapidated train hub since the president took control of the project from the MTA<\/a> last year and turned the work over to Amtrak, which owns the station.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to our rail, we\u2019re making generational improvements to the Northeast Corridor,\u201d Duffy said during his opening testimony at the hearing, which was under oath. \u201cThat means \u2026 a transformative investment in New York\u2019s Penn Station \u2014 $8 billion, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n Later in the hearing, Duffy repeated the number during a tense exchange with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was criticizing the Trump administration for trying to withhold transportation funding from New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to give $8 billion to rebuild Penn Station. Is that a joke?\u201d Duffy quipped.<\/p>\n The day after the hearing, Amtrak officials announced a group called Penn Transformation Partners as the \u201cmaster developer\u201d for Penn Station. The group plans to build a new, light-filled entrance on Eighth Avenue, keep Madison Square Garden<\/a> in place and redesign the arena\u2019s exterior with a \u201cclassical look.\u201d It\u2019s unclear how much the project will cost.<\/p>\n The winning group is led by Halmar, a construction company that\u2019s also working on the MTA\u2019s Second Avenue subway extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n The feds didn\u2019t say how they intend to allocate $8 billion for the station\u2019s rebuild. Many large transportation construction projects, like the Second Avenue subway extension into East Harlem, receive federal grants. The Build America Bureau \u2014 established under former President Barack Obama in 2016 \u2014 is also used by the federal government to give out loans for transportation infrastructure projects to \u201cstate, local and private project sponsors.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul has said New York state won\u2019t put any additional money into the reconstruction effort.<\/p>\n