Penn Station Reconstruction
Client: Metropolitan Transportation Authority Construction & Development
Location: New York, United States
Start date: 2023
End date: 2024
Duration: 15 Months
Services provided: Policy Development & Advice, Institutional Advice
Penn Station, one of the busiest rail stations in North America, is undergoing a major reconstruction led by its railroad partners: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), representing Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad (MNR), along with Amtrak and New Jersey Transit (NJT).
The project aims to significantly enhance customer experience by improving passenger circulation, accessibility, information, station functionality, and retail. The reconstruction seeks to create a unified, fully integrated transportation hub, centralizing public circulation and key station functions on a single concourse to serve all railroads more efficiently.
Network Rail Consulting (NRC) was engaged to develop a Concept of Operations (ConOps) to describe, at a high level, the operations required to manage Penn Station in its existing state and its future, final condition.
The ConOps document was developed through consultation with the railroad stakeholders, MTA, NJT, and Amtrak, and included the following elements:
- Capture the current and proposed way of working at Penn Station New York (PSNY);
- Determine principles of future operations;
- Explore unification of management and maintenance of the facility, with consideration for the Penn Expansion project; and
- Explore the potential for outsourcing management and maintenance tasks to a third party.
The ConOPs document served as guidance on operational principles and will ultimately shape how the station functions for both railroads and customers, as the railroads decide the future station management structure.
The ConOps covers the following sections: customer service and public-facing amenities, signage and wayfinding, retail, vertical circulation, passenger flows, back-of-house elements, security and policing, homeless outreach, and staffing and training approach for Penn Station. It has been developed through:
- Individual focus groups with staff from the railroad partners in areas that align with all elements of operating the station;
- Best practices and lessons learned from national and international station operations and redevelopments; and
- Feedback from design team leads in key areas that feed the ConOps, e.g., safety and security, customer experience, and programming.
The output of this effort is a final draft Concept of Operations document, including current approach, best practice, and future recommended approach to operation of a unified and modernized Penn Station facility.
Following extensive railroad changes outside of the scope, we updated the Concept of Operations to include the clients design and operational decisions and to align the unified structure we originally proposed.