The $ 1.6 billion project is slated to be completed to replace the Penn Station in the cramped and dark Manhattan with a light-filled train hall this week, with the first trains set to operate on New Year’s Day.
The new 255,000-square-foot station is named after US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat who championed the project and died in 2003. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is also a Democrat, announced Sunday that Moynihan’s train hall would be completed in time and budget Thursday on Thursday. Despite the challenges the coronavirus pandemic presents.
Work began in 2017 to convert the historic Farley Post Office into a new station across the street from the old Penn Station. It will be used by Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak riders.
“This tremendous achievement is a moment of hope when we come out of the darkest periods in our history and send a clear message to the world that we are suffering greatly as a result of this health crisis that occurs once in a century,” Cuomo said in a statement that the epidemic has not prevented us from dreaming big and building for the future.
