For the majority of commuters in New York, New Jersey and the surrounding areas, Penn Station has been the source of many headaches, late arrivals to work, and chaos as of late. Throughout the month of April, multiple trains have been derailed, a train got stuck at Penn Station, there have been ongoing power problems, and a false-alarm of a gunshot caused a stampede injuring 16. All of these incidents have caused massive delays further congesting an already cramped transit system and instilling fears of safety. The issues have been so disruptive that there is even a social media push, #NoPayMay, for commuters to use April's tickets stubs in May due to the substandard service in the past month. 

On Thursday, Amtrak officials revealed they would be closing several tracks over the summer but have yet to say how many, or for how long. While the need for improvements are highly recognized, many fear that Amtrak's approach to tackling the deteriorating infrastructure will strain the already congested and overpacked transit hub making the morning commute for hundreds of thousands all the more difficult.

Penn Station is the busiest transportation hub in Northern America, handling 600,000 passengers and 1,300 trains daily. Operated by Amtrak, the company has been struggling financially leading to the deteriorating infrastructure causing today's problem. Amtrak runs Penn Station and their role as the transit center’s landlord is increasingly being called into question. Amtrak’s trains account for only 8% of the headcount at the station while LIRR handles 53% of the load and NJ Transit 39%. Recently, Governor Cuomo has even suggested that he would like MTA to take over command of the station, relegating Amtrak to a junior partner.

With attention being increasingly drawn to issues surrounding Penn Station, the urgency for a fix has reached a peak and created what could be a moment for the Governor. However, Cuomo's plans to revive Penn Station appear to be merely cosmetic alterations, including a new train hall across the street. While it does provide new access to the Long Island Railroad, it’s not a stretch to see how a shiny new building slated to complete in 2020 will time nicely with Cuomo’s expected bid for the presidential election that same year. In actuality, the new building will only be useful for about 20% of daily commuters and does nothing to repair issues with the already-existing Penn Station. Cuomo's proposal, as the Times points out, is in line with a certain type of political project in which short-term fixes that can be used as political capital in an election year take precedent over more thorough proposals that get the job done much better but are harder to sell as a reason to be voted into office.