{"id":722177,"date":"2026-06-24T00:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722177\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:08:17","slug":"mta-chair-calls-amtraks-penn-station-planning-bizarre-declines-to-join-as-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/722177\/","title":{"rendered":"MTA chair calls Amtrak’s Penn Station planning ‘bizarre,’ declines to join as partner"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTA Chair Janno Lieber on Monday dismissed an offer by Amtrak special adviser Andy Byford for the state authority to become a \u201cfully involved\u201d partner in the Trump administration\u2019s reconstruction of Penn Station<\/a> \u2014 saying the federal government\u2019s oversight of the project has been “bizarre” and has \u201cthe appearance of impropriety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lieber\u2019s message, obtained by Gothamist, came Monday evening, less than 12 hours after Byford sent a letter<\/a> renewing an offer for the MTA to join the project. President Donald Trump pulled oversight duties of the Penn Station redevelopment from the MTA last year and turned the work over to Amtrak, which owns the Midtown train hub. Last month, Amtrak selected a \u201cmaster developer\u201d to manage the work<\/a>. The station’s appearance and rider experience have been the source of public outcry for decades.<\/p>\n

Lieber\u2019s response indicated the MTA was prepared to hold up the renewal project. He laid out several concerns about how Amtrak selected the \u201cmaster developer\u201d to oversee the work and how construction would affect Long Island Rail Road operations at Penn Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MTA\u2019s Long Island Rail Road and the MTA\u2019s subways carry two-thirds of the daily users of Penn Station,\u201d Lieber wrote. \u201cEven more important, the LIRR has a prepaid lease running for another 160 years (through 2186) that gives us approval rights for any construction within or affecting the northern half of the station.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven alterations outside our space may not \u2018unduly burden train operations\u2019 or \u2018affect the structural integrity\u2019 of our leasehold,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The design for the station selected by Amtrak<\/a> aims to build a grand entrance on Eighth Avenue, add tens of thousands of square feet of natural light, raise the ceiling height of the historically claustrophobic halls, and add bronze and stone detailing.<\/p>\n

Byford has said the reconstruction would not affect Penn Station\u2019s new Seventh Avenue entrance and 33rd Street concourse built under Lieber\u2019s direction over the last decade. In his letter on Monday, Byford laid out multiple attempts to get the MTA to sign a \u201cmemorandum of agreement\u201d on the project, noting that NJ Transit had already signed on.<\/p>\n

Lieber wrote in his response that \u201cthere\u2019s no point in rebutting all the blah-blah\u201d about those discussions and said the MTA would stick to its long-standing lease agreement to run service in the train hall. He accused Byford and Amtrak of \u201cgamesmanship\u201d by releasing his initial letter to the public.<\/p>\n

Lieber\u2019s response to Byford offers new insight into the MTA\u2019s opposition to the Trump administration\u2019s Penn Station efforts. Lieber has mostly avoided making public comments on the process since losing control of the work last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his letter, he said the project still has no official cost estimate or funding source. He scrutinized how much the project would benefit Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan, given that Amtrak\u2019s plans would require the purchase and demolition of the Infosys Theater in order to build the new entrance on Eighth Avenue.<\/p>\n

Lieber also questioned the Trump administration\u2019s involvement in the selection process. Gothamist previously reported that sources close to the process said Trump would have the final say<\/a> in picking a design.<\/p>\n

Lieber questioned how the construction firm Halmar, which also does work with the MTA, was chosen to lead the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid their (Halmar\u2019s) executives\u2019 close ties to the Trump administration influence the course for the procurement?\u201d Lieber wrote, likely referring to the company\u2019s executive Peter Cipriano, who previously worked for the federal Department of Transportation during Trump\u2019s first term in office.<\/p>\n

Lieber asked what will happen to the project if Trump\u2019s \u201cinterest fades and nothing comes of it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lieber also noted that the MTA is \u201cof course open to engaging with Amtrak, but without conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur duty is to protect the interests of thousands of MTA riders at Penn Station \u2014 and those of New York state taxpayers, who Amtrak and your chosen developer keep mentioning as potential funders,\u201d he wrote<\/p>\n

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy committed in recent months to securing billions of dollars in federal funding<\/a> and loans to see the project through, and has estimated the cost to be between $7 and $8 billion.<\/p>\n

Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams said in a statement that his agency’s Monday letter \u201cspeaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to improving the entirety of Penn Station for New Yorkers, and it’s unfortunate MTA does not seem to share that approach,” Abrams said. “We will continue to act in good faith and keep the invitation open to be collaborative partners so they can provide an even better experience for their customers.”<\/p>\n

Byford and the feds have set an ambitious deadline to begin construction by the end of 2027. In the meantime, they\u2019ll have to sort out funding<\/a> and come to an agreement with the essential parties.<\/p>\n

In his initial letter Monday, Byford said he\u2019d move forward with the Penn Station project whether or not the MTA joins as a partner.<\/p>\n

Clarification: This headline has been updated to reflect the MTA chair’s criticism of the Penn Station process since Amtrak took it over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MTA Chair Janno Lieber on Monday dismissed an offer by Amtrak special adviser Andy Byford for the state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-722177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}