New York's nightmarish Penn Station is getting a much-needed makeover

Leanna Garfield

2016-01-07T21:44:00Z

24135009201_1403f13bd3_k — A rendering of NYC's Penn Station's redesign, the "Empire Station Complex." Andrew Cuomo Administration/Flickr

New York City's Penn Station is a transit nightmare. It's dismally gray, confusing to navigate, and frequently smells like a mix of Auntie Anne's pretzels and body odor.

Traveling through Penn is a bit of a necessary evil that commuters just deal with. It's an incredibly busy transportation hub, where roughly 650,000 people and 1,200 trains pass through each day.

The train station will now get a much-needed makeover in a plan led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As part of the $3 billion project, the redesigned Penn Station will be called the "Empire Station Complex," due to be completed in 2019.

Here's what it will look like.

The Amtrak waiting area, currently on the first floor near the Eighth Avenue entrance, will be moved to the historic Farley Post Office across the street, Cuomo says.

The new train hall will connect to Penn Station via a tunnel and will increase the station's size by about 50%. That's roughly the size of the main room in Grand Central. This will likely free up space to renovate the New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road concourses.

The plan also calls for wider corridors, upgraded ticket stations, working Wi-Fi, 30 new escalators, roomier trains, and larger windows for more natural light.

The redesign will simplify navigation and make the station's signs more clear. A few, better restaurants and shops will also pop up, Cuomo says.

"Penn Station is the heart of New York’s economy and transportation network, but it has been outdated, overcrowded, and unworthy of the Empire State for far too long," Cuomo said in a statement. "We want to build Penn Station to be better than it ever was, and that is exactly what we are going to do."

A few people on Twitter have poked fun at the Star Wars-esque name: the "Empire Station Complex."

—Ted Mann (@TMannWSJ) January 6, 2016

—Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) January 6, 2016

Others have suggested options for a new logo for the re-branded Penn.

—Scott Saslow (@Saslow_Scott) January 6, 2016

This is not the first attempt to revive Penn Station. Cuomo's father, Mario Cuomo, also proposed a similar plan in the 1980s, but funding fell through. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan later tried to rebuild the station, but Amtrak withdrew from the plan in 2001.

In his 2016 State of the State Agenda, Cuomo also announced a $300 million allocation to NYC's environmental protection fund and a $1 billion plan to expand the Jacob K. Javits Center by 1.2 million square feet. It's a long-overdue overhaul.

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