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**Andrius** · 07-30-2012, 07:27 PM

Penn Station is absolutely awful. It has the same feel as Suburban Station, just more crowded and often even dirtier (and strangely, some parts feeling even more desolate at times).

There's no comparing 30th St. and Penn Station. The real comparison is 30th St. to Grand Central. (I'm ignoring which train services actually use the stations; I realize Amtrak does not go through GCS).

The thing to keep in mind about the current Penn Station is that it was designed and built by the Garden's developers, as a way to sweeten their offer to Pennsy for the land the old Penn Station sat on. It's probably the only train station on the East Coast that was built almost entirely as an afterthought; other than the air conditioning (which Old Penn didn't have), there seemed to be no regard for the needs of ridership whatsoever.

There's a lot of criticism for the new Farley Post Office station that's opening in a few years because it doesn't include any new passages under the Hudson, but even if it's mainly an aesthetic improvement, it's still sorely needed.

07-30-2012, 07:27 PM	#16
Andrius Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 430 Senior Member	Penn Station is absolutely awful. It has the same feel as Suburban Station, just more crowded and often even dirtier (and strangely, some parts feeling even more desolate at times). There's no comparing 30th St. and Penn Station. The real comparison is 30th St. to Grand Central. (I'm ignoring which train services actually use the stations; I realize Amtrak does not go through GCS). The thing to keep in mind about the current Penn Station is that it was designed and built by the Garden's developers, as a way to sweeten their offer to Pennsy for the land the old Penn Station sat on. It's probably the only train station on the East Coast that was built almost entirely as an afterthought; other than the air conditioning (which Old Penn didn't have), there seemed to be no regard for the needs of ridership whatsoever. There's a lot of criticism for the new Farley Post Office station that's opening in a few years because it doesn't include any new passages under the Hudson, but even if it's mainly an aesthetic improvement, it's still sorely needed.
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