page_title: Gateway Program (Northeast Corridor)
section_title: Farley Post Office
hierarchical_section_title: Gateway Program (Northeast Corridor) / Existing and new infrastructure along right of way / New York Penn Station / Farley Post Office
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking south as eastbound Acela (nearest train) approaches 9th Avenue.
context_page_description: The Gateway Program is the planned phased expansion and renovation of the Northeast Corridor rail line between Newark, New Jersey and New York City, New York. The right-of-way runs between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station. The project would build new rail bridges in the New Jersey Meadowlands and new tunnels under Bergen Hill and the Hudson River, as well as the conversion of the James Farley Post Office into Moynihan Train Hall and construction of a new terminal annex.
  The existing two-track rail line used by both Amtrak and NJ Transit Rail Operations has reached its full capacity of 24 trains per hour. Once completed, the improvements would double train capacity across the Hudson River to 48 trains per hour, allowing for additional high-speed rail service. Gateway was unveiled in 2011, one year after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's cancellation of the somewhat similar Access to the Region's Core project; it was originally projected to cost $14.5 billion and take 14 years to build. Some previously planned improvements already underway were incorporated into the Gateway program.
context_section_description: In the early 1990s, then-New York Senator Daniel Moynihan announced plans to convert portions of the James Farley Post Office, at 40°45′4.4″N 73°59′42.64″W, to a train station. Opened in 1912, soon after the original Pennsylvania Station, the landmark building is the city's main post office. It stands across from Penn Plaza and is built over tracks approaching the station from the west.
  The project languished for almost two decades, until the final chunk of the $267 million in funding for the first phase of the conversion was secured in early 2010. The phase will expand and improve the 33rd Street Connector between Penn Station and its West End Concourse. Located under the grand staircase of the post office, the concourse will be widened to serve nine of Pennsylvania Station's 11 platforms, and new street entrances will be opened from the southeast and northeast corners of the Farley building. Some $169 million provided by federal and state sources was already in place when a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant arrived in early 2010. A ceremonial groundbreaking and signing for the $83 million in funds took place in October.
  No timetable has been set for further phases, which may include public-private partnerships. In April 2011 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state had applied for $49.8 million in federal funding for the final design of Phase 2 of the station's conversion, but was not honored.
  The Gateway Project will have little effect on the first phase of the Farley conversion. The second phase of the renovation is planned to make the post office Amtrak's New York Gateway, though in December 2011 it said that it would likely be unable to afford increased operating costs if it should re-locate. The unsuccessful application leaves the project unfunded. The agency redeveloping the building is being folded into the PANYNJ in the belief that it can better handle and oversee reconstruction as well as provide or secure monies. In May 2012, the PANYNJ announced that a $270 million contract for the first phase, including that the concourse expansion under 8th Avenue had been awarded. Completion is expected sometime in 2016.
  In January 2016, NY Governor Cuomo announced plans for a combined Penn-Farley Post Office complex called Empire State Station, a comprehensive integrated station, a project estimated to cost $3 billion.
caption: NEC passes under the James Farley Post Office, as seen looking southeast at the rear of the building.
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