 |
Pennsylvania (Penn) Station, New York |
|
|
New York's terminus
for interstate trains is undistinguished,
but functional.
|
||
|
|
|
New York City's Pennsylvania Station on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets (map), was once a grand Doric-temple monument to 20th-century progress, but the imposing original station, designed by McKim, Mead and White, was destroyed in 1964 to make way for a new Madison Square Garden sports and show arena, and an office tower. The arena and office tower were built above, the new, much reduced non-descript station beneath. Today, Penn Station (as it is commonly called) is a charmless functional facility where you come and go on Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road trains between New York and other states. It is the busiest railroad station in the USA, by far. Entrances to the station are difficult for non-New Yorkers to find. Get to Madison Square Garden at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street, and ask. The heart of the station is the subterranean main concourse with its annunciator board listing all the arriving and departing trains. Trains are in the station and available for boarding for only a few minutes, so the concourse is full of passengers waiting for the board to show their track number. When the track number appears on the annunciator and is announced on the public address system, usually only five to eight minutes before train departure time, passengers go to either the East or West track-numbered escalators and descend to the track to board the train. Amtrak has a tidy waiting area for its passengers, complete with free public Wifi Internet access. Show your Amtrak ticket to enter the waiting area. Shops, snack stands, a bar and restaurant are on the sides of the concourse. Grand Central Terminal, New York's other principal railway station, for commuter and regional trains at Park Avenue and 42nd Street (map), is 13 blocks (1.5 miles/2.41 km) northeast of Penn Station: walk north 9 blocks north on 7th Avenue, then 4 blocks east on 42nd Street. You can walk between stations in about 45 minutes, 35 if you have no luggage and you walk fast. A taxi might take 15 minutes once you actually get in a cab (there may be a waiting line for taxis). Click here for more on the dolorous history of Penn Station.
|
|
| |||
|
|
|||||||
|
|