design selected by Amtrak<\/a> would overhaul the train hub\u2019s interior, platforms and add a grand new Eighth Avenue entrance.<\/p>\nByford has said he met with Hochul earlier this month to review the designs and try to convince her to help fund the project.<\/p>\n
Lieber said Wednesday he still had many questions about the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI very much agree with [Hochul] that we can and should partner and collaborate and work with [Amtrak] on their ideas, which no one has shared those with us,\u201d Lieber said during an MTA board meeting on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m glad that she had an opportunity to see it (the design) if she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lieber said that signing the agreement offered by Amtrak would put New York taxpayers at unnecessary risk. Lieber noted that Byford used to work at the MTA as NYC Transit President.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Andy Byford is a much loved former member of the MTA family, I\u2019m afraid that I\u2019m declining to be the first person in New York real estate history to say I want to enter into a real estate deal with Donald Trump with no lease and no protections and just take a bet, roll the dice,\u201d said Lieber. \u201cWe can\u2019t do that for our New York riders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lieber compared the disagreement with Amtrak over Penn Station to a landlord-tenant dispute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lease that has 160-odd years left on it that says you can\u2019t come into our house and make changes without our approval,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you want when you\u2019re a tenant, you don\u2019t want somebody to come into your house, your apartment, your landlord to come and tear it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MTA has stressed their lease agreement with Amtrak gives the New York agency leverage over any construction at Penn Station that could affect LIRR\u2019s operations. Lieber said he didn\u2019t want to give up that power.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ready to collaborate, we just don\u2019t need a brand new agreement that eviscerates key rights that we have in our lease,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to do it, just send us the plans, brief us, we will give you your feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking to lower the temperature in a dispute between the MTA and Amtrak over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-277273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277273","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=277273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}