Gov. Hochul, MTA officials unveil new LIRR concourse at Penn Station
NEW YORK -- The evening commute for people taking the Long Island Rail Road to and from Penn Station looked a lot different Tuesday night as the MTA unveiled the first part of a new concourse.
The Transit Authority told CBS2's Lisa Rozner it's the largest railroad facility built in the United States since the 1950s.
For decades, heading two stories underground to take the LIRR has felt like what riders describe as more like heading into a bunker or dungeon.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber and Gov. Kathy Hochul did not mince words when unveiling a new main entrance Tuesday.
"We're opening a space in Penn Station finally that's more fit for humans than rodents," Lieber said.
"It takes us from the depths of hell so you can see the lights in the skies of heavens looking down upon us," Hochul said.
From 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, there's now a bank of escalators taking riders to a more spacious LIRR concourse. At around 60 feet, it's almost double the previous width.
The MTA says more than half of Penn Station's 600,000 daily users pass through the concourse.
With the ceilings raised to 18 feet, it feels more open.
"We welcome this," Rosedale resident Petrona Taylor said. "The artistry, it's beautiful."
"I never even imagined it could have looked like this," Roslyn resident Mark Mohabir said.
Looking up, there's 9,500 square feet of programmable color-changing LED lights.
"You can have clouds moving," said Jolyon Handler, project executive for the Long Island Rail Road Concourse Renovation. "This is really the central spine of the station because people then can move between Seventh and Eighth avenues from their tracks to their subway stops."
Every column has track information.
There was one unappealing aesthetic pointed out: random leaks on the floor in front of the press conference, which officials said was just condensation.
"The project still has a couple months to go. Part of that is balancing the air conditioning system," Lieber said.
Not everyone is so optimistic about the $550 million project. <ore than half was funded by the state.
"The winter's coming. You're going to have a lot of homeless in here," Merrick resident Kevin Cassidy said. "Based on what I've seen of the retrofits over the past, it'll probably look good for a year."
The MTA says in a few months' time, the corridor will be complete with retail, and in a few years, the concourse will also serve as the hub for Metro-North commuters.
The corridor is scheduled to be complete by March 2023. The MTA says thanks to this and other projects, LIRR riders will eventually see a 30% increase in service.