Form Follows Function: Capacity Before Architecture at Penn Station
Form Follows Function: Capacity Before Architecture at Penn Station (Webinar)
Recorded July 6, 2025
On July 6, 2025, ETA gave a webinar with the High Speed Rail Alliance. Watch to learn about the future of New York’s Penn Station through this conversation between HSRA executive director Rick Harnish and Blair Lorenzo, the leader of the Effective Transit Alliance.
Ever since the demolition of the grand station building in 1963, New York’s Penn Station has gone through decades of remodelings and innumerable proposals for replacement. Outside of increasing the number of stairs, elevators, and escalators, however, none of these projects truly addresses the station’s major issue: capacity, the number of trains and people that can move through the space every hour.
Right now, the Gateway project is set to double the number of tracks under the Hudson River, and Amtrak wants to knock down a Midtown block to build new tracks—but there are other options as well. Whatever happens to Penn Station architecturally, it is critical we make the right decisions today to ensure the future of regional and intercity rail travel in New York.
Acknowledgments
ETA would like to thank the following who contributed to this presentation: Hunter Bickel, Madison Feinberg, Alon Levy, Blair Lorenzo, Khyber Sen, and of course, the High Speed Rail Alliance!