We don’t need to remake Penn Station. We do need it to work

WHILE LIVING in Manhattan, I was heavily involved in transit issues, part of that time as a member of Community Board 8. I’ve stayed involved since then, mostly in Long Island Rail Road issues. I’ve used LIRR for commuting and personal visits since 1992.

I like:

● at the Penn Station LIRR concourses are getting better and hope that, when nished, they will have what commuters need, including quick and easy food choices and newsstands.

● e new exit to Seventh Avenue.

I don’t like:

● e crazy plans to “remake” Penn aboveground.

● at not a single plan I’ve heard does anything to x the tracks, platforms and either broken or slow escalators or both, and add capacity within the same footprint.

● Elevators that frequently don’t work and double as cesspools.

● e extremely narrow platform for Track 17.

● e waste from some superwide platforms.

● at on the platforms, there is no way to gure out where an escalator or elevator might be.

● at there’s nothing to tell people where to be on a platform for an easy transfer to the JFK train at Jamaica.

● e di culty of getting up to the former Amtrak level.

● at on the East End, there are three frequently broken and always slow escalators, and no elevators.

● at on the West end, there are just stairs.

● e lack of properly cleaned and maintained bathrooms that president & ceo K.C. Crain group publisher Jim Kirk publisher/executive editor

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

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PRODUCTION don’t double as homeless bathhouses.

● e lack of decent lounges with enough space for the frequently long waits for trains.

Please tell real estate developers and politicians:

● We don’t need to demolish several blocks, including a historic church and the Penn Station Power Building.

● We don’t need more o ce buildings or luxury hotels. We do need a ordable hotels, stores, eateries and residential capacity.

● We don’t need our commuter station to become a Taj Mahal. We need it to work.

● We do need the tracks and platforms realigned, and, if possible, one added.

● We need the Gimbels passageway reopened and rebuilt to allow people to connect to trains at the Sixth Avenue stations underground. at will help in bad weather and reduce congestion in crosswalks and sidewalks.

RON TROY East Northport

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