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NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - When thinking of ways to describe Penn Station, compliments are few and far between.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo insists, the times they are a-changin'.
“We’ve designed a beautiful new entrance,” the governor announced.
The new main entrance will be at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue. It will provide much needed direct access to the Long Island Railroad Main Concourse and the Seventh and Eighth Avenue subway lines.
It will eliminate congestion by doubling customer access and will illuminate the area with a 30-foot all glass overhang of varying colors.
“It’s literally the first time you will have illumination and light in that concourse in over 50 years,” Cuomo said.
The price tag? $600 million.
The governor says $170 million will come from the MTA’s current capital program, and the rest comes from the state budget.
With that money, the LIRR concourse itself will get a facelift of its own.
“It will have a view of the tracks and platforms below it will have a first-class retail mezzanine,” Cuomo said.
It will also be widened by 30 feet and the ceiling’s height will be more than doubled.
New York State is also spending $1.6 billion to transform the old Farley Post Office into the new Moynihan Train Hall.
Both projects are set to be completed by the end of 2020.