How to squeeze 1,200 trains a day into America's busiest transit hub | NJ.com How to squeeze 1,200 trains a day into America's busiest transit hub comments NEW YORK — It's the morning rush on the first day of a new week, and New York Penn Station's controlled chaos is in full rant as tens of thousands of commuters hurtle toward the workday. Inside the Penn Station Central Control center, dispatchers stare at the 75-foot-wide screen showing movements of trains from the Philadelphia outskirts to Long Island and try once more to do the improbable: Funnel 1,200 trains a day through century-old tunnels into a maze-like station that has subways down below and is corked by Madison Square Garden. "This ballet takes place every day," said Drew Galloway, chief of Northeast Corridor planning and performance for Amtrak, which owns the station and rents to NJ Transit. Two blocks west of Penn Station, there is a small world that commuters never see. It’s lit up with a 10-foot-tall display board in the primary colors of red, green and blue, plus yellow and orange, to signify train movements and tracks.

It’s inhabited by rows of dispatchers, whose eyes are constantly focused on the board, dealing with external factors that can produce some of the worst commuter entanglements in the world. You wouldn’t know it by looking at the dispatchers, so unfazed they seem as if they are checking out books at the library instead of routing trains through North America’s busiest transit hub. "We pay them to be calm and to handle whatever needs to be handled," said Phil Kaplan, assistant superintendent of operations for the Northeast Corridor in New York, a burly, straight-talking supervisor who has been there 37 years. "It wouldn’t survive if it was chaos, it just wouldn’t," added Galloway, an Ocean County resident who helped Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama redevelop rail services within the Gulf States corridors and has more than 35 years in the rail industry. The dispatchers are the St. Peters of the tracks — gatekeepers who decide whether your train can enter Manhattan, in a jigsaw puzzle of a transit hub that handles 650,000 people a day — twice as busy as America’s most-used airport in Atlanta and busier than Newark, LaGuardia and JFK airports combined.

Every day, these train station equivalents of air traffic controllers try to figure out how to fit 5 pounds of potatoes into a 3-pound sack. Amtrak let The Star-Ledger visit the control center in Midtown Manhattan during the Monday morning rush. The display board shows a system of tracks that crisscross like spaghetti and crawl into a station that was never expected to have so many passengers. One incident — a tree falling onto a transmission wire in New Brunswick or the century-old Portal Bridge failing to close in Kearny — can have a domino effect that turns your commute into a horror. During the visit to the control center, it became apparent why New Jersey passengers at Penn Station cannot count on their train arriving at the same track every day. The stampede One of the most maddening parts of waiting for a train at the station is the cattle call that ensues when a train gate assignment is listed. But unlike, say, Newark Penn Station, where you can always count on a train to the city arriving on Track 1, at New York Penn Station you get the train where the track is available.

"They have a program — it’s a guide — but there are so many variables down here it just takes one thing to happen, and there goes the apple cart," said Dennis Hamby, Amtrak’s superintendent of operations for the Northeast Corridor in New York. "Next thing you know, you’re putting (trains) wherever you can." Dennis Hamby of Amtrak helps coordinate a daily "ballet" that involves moving 1,200 trains in and out of New York Penn Station, the busiest transit hub in North America.Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger On the big overhead display board at the control center, a red line signifies that a train is occupying a track at New York Penn Station and a green line signifies that a route is being requested. Moving yellow rectangles signify the trains. Three hours into the morning rush, the display board still has more red than a matador’s convention. "It’s all filled," Galloway said.

"You’ll see that from 7 in the morning until 10 in the morning and from 4 in the afternoon until 7 at night." Penn Station has 21 tracks that shoehorn trains into the station from four tunnels under the East River and two under the Hudson River. Amtrak is hoping to build two additional tubes from Secaucus to the south side of an expanded New York Penn Station by 2025. It would be called the "Gateway Tunnel," an alternative to NJ Transit’s ARC tunnel terminated three years ago by Gov. Chris Christie. The Gateway Tunnel would allow 13 more NJ Transit trains during peak hours — for a total of 33 — and eight additional Amtrak trains. NJ Transit now operates 332 trains into and out of New York Penn Station each weekday — nearly half of NJ Transit’s 697 trains a day, agency spokesman John Durso Jr. said. During peak hours, he said, an NJ Transit train enters New York Penn Station every 150 seconds.

While long-term funding for the Gateway Tunnel has not been found, other work being done on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor rail line between New Brunswick and Trenton will improve the Depression-era signals and the overhead electrical wires that power the trains, allowing more capacity on the line. The upgrades are expected to allow train speeds of 160 mph — up from 135 mph now — while increasing reliability on a rail line where commuters have seen numerous delays caused by sagging or downed wires. "You’re going to go from two or three trains an hour, in some respects, to 10 or 12 trains an hour," Galloway said. Back at the control center, the display board is showing green, signifying two open slots inside Penn Station. "That won’t stay for long," Galloway said, and soon after he said it, the board went red again. Twice during the previous week, the East River tunnels were shut down for the entire morning rush. The board had a big blue line, meaning the tracks were blocked. Stranded for 3 hours Kaplan can only recall one time where passengers had to be rescued from a train inside a tunnel.

During a scary event on NJ Transit trains following a power outage two years ago, about 1,500 people were stranded for up to three hours on the last day of the summer, leading to the installation of fans in the tunnel and other safeguards. But nothing could compare with Hurricane Sandy 13 months ago, when water from Long Island City infiltrated the East River tunnels. "During Sandy we shut down; I had bodies here with nothing to do basically, because we weren’t running," Kaplan said. Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road share the control center; NJ Transit has one of its own in Kearny. All three agencies have designated sections inside Penn Station. Somehow, despite the mass of trains and humanity to move, the system usually works, racking up a more than 90-percent overall on-time performance. Now it’s 9:30 a.m. on the first day of the workweek. The morning hasn’t been without its problems.

On the Jersey side, Montclair Line service was subject to delays of up to a half-hour in both directions due to "overhead wire problems" and Gladstone Line service was subject to delays of up to 15 minutes in both directions due to "signal problems." But it has largely been a quiet morning. Not that you could tell the difference from the poker-face dispatchers. Another morning miracle has come and gone. "We just went though a rush hour here," Kaplan said. "Seamless." RELATED COVERAGE Fairfield Inn & Suites - New York Midtown Manhattan / Penn Station | New York, NY | OTO Development Fairfield Inn & Suites - New York Midtown Manhattan / Penn Station New York, NY The Fairfield Inn & Suites, OTO’s first Manhattan hotel is located in the dynamic Midtown submarket. Just steps away from Penn Station (America’s busiest train station) and Madison Square Garden (home to the Knicks and Rangers), the hotel is convenient for both tourists and business travelers. The hotel is centrally located within eight short blocks of Times Square, and the Penn Station subway hub provides guests easy access to all of New York City.

The nearly 50 million tourists who visit Manhattan annually will find the grand lobby (20’+ high ceilings), well-appointed rooms, and expansive suites an inviting home away from home. Corporate travelers will find all of the amenities they need on the road including high-speed internet, a business center, and meeting space. At the end of the day or before one of the more than 200 annual events at Madison Square Garden, guests will be able to enjoy a drink on the rooftop bar (over 200’ above the street) while enjoying incredible views of downtown Manhattan, the Hudson River, and Jersey City. New York's Penn station – and other ugly train terminals around the world | Art and design | The Guardian Architecture New York's Penn station – and other ugly train terminals around the world The city council has ordered Madison Square Garden to move within 10 years, making way for a redeveloped Penn station. What about other ugly stations from around the world? Architecture New York's Penn station – and other ugly train terminals around the world The city council has ordered Madison Square Garden to move within 10 years, making way for a redeveloped Penn station. What about other ugly stations from around the world?

Jason Farago in New York Thursday 25 July 2013 14.33 EDT First published on Thursday 25 July 2013 14.33 EDT Share on Messenger Close The New York City council voted overwhelmingly this week to renew the lease of Madison Square Garden only for 10 more years – essentially serving an eviction notice to the hulking stadium in midtown Manhattan. The decision was cheered by architectural and civic organizations, who have been pressing for decades to redevelop Pennsylvania station, the neglected railway terminus underneath the stadium. Penn station is by far the busiest railway station in North America, and Madison Square Garden has been one of the principal roadblocks to redeveloping it. The eviction notice for Madison Square Garden offers the best opportunity in decades to revive Penn station. Earlier this year the Municipal Art Society presented a quartet of new design proposals from architects such as Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who masterminded the reconstruction of Lincoln Center, and ShoP Architects, designers of the Barclays center stadium in Brooklyn. All the proposed designs eliminate the underground maze of today's Penn station, and bring passengers back up into the city.

While the US has long suffered from some of the worst infrastructure in the western world, other cities have built some hideous stations too. Old Penn station The original Penn station, which opened in 1910, was a beaux-arts masterpiece. Designed by McKim, Mead & White, the most prominent architectural firm of the era – responsible also for the Morgan library and the Brooklyn museum – the station served as a breathtaking arrival point for visitors to New York. The station's waiting room, modeled on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, was the largest indoor space in New York at the time. The concourse of the original Penn Station circa 1910, above, and the concourse of the current Penn Station today, below. Photo: Detroit Publishing Company/US LOC Photograph: Joe Shlabotnik/Flickr New Penn station The current, calamitous Penn station opened in 1968 and is entirely underground. "Through it one entered the city like a god," Vincent Scully said of the old station.

"Now one scuttles in like a rat." The current design "features" grimy, fluorescent-lit narrow hallways, now packed to capacity as more than 300,000 passengers trample through the terminus every day. The horror of the new Penn station did have one positive effect, however: it contributed to grassroots opposition to Robert Moses, the all-powerful "master builder" of New York. While he got his way with Penn station, his subsequent plans for an expressway cutting through lower Manhattan were thwarted. Euston station Not unlike Penn, Euston in central London is a gritty 1960s monstrosity that replaced an innovative earlier structure. The original Euston featured a wrought-iron roof and allowed natural light onto the platforms. The low, flat building constructed afterwards has none of the earlier station's charm. The current trainshed is a dank, underlit bunker, unconvincingly tarted up with some irregularly watered potted plants. The departure screen at Euston station. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty Images Birmingham New Street The second-largest city in Britain is saddled with what must be the country's worst railway station.

A low-slung concrete slab with a shopping mall and a parking lot plopped on top of it, New Street features half a dozen entrances that never seem to get you to the right location. Despite the name, New Street station is not on New Street – you have to walk through a dingy shopping center to get there. Update: As commenters (and Network Rail) point out, New Street is in the throes of a massive redevelopment , due to be completed in 2015. Don't expect New York city planners to move so rapidly, though. Brussels central station The capital of the European Union doesn't exactly put its best foot forward for railway passengers. The Brussels train station, sited entirely underground, recalls Penn in all the worst ways. Cold, filthy, appallingly lit, and stinking of urine, the station is located underneath some of the city's main streets, and therefore has no room to expand capacity as more and more passengers crowd onto its overtaxed platforms.

Update: Okay, hands up, Central has recently had a bit of a spruce-up and public urination in Brussels may now be confined to that statue of the pissing boy, but the covered-up platforms of Brussels Central are as low-ceilinged as ever. Termini, Rome One of the largest stations in Europe and a hub for both international and local rail, Rome's railway terminus is not exactly on the level of the Coliseum or the Forum. Set in a grotty neighborhood east of the Tiber, the late 1940s structure features a long, ominous cantilevered concrete roof that has led Romans to nickname the station il dinosauro, "the dinosaur." Not only is it desperately crowded, but you have to dive past rows of buses to get to the front entrance. And perpetual reconstruction, usually featuring torn-up streets cordoned off with corrugated fencing, never seems to make things easier. Termini station in Rome Photograph: Flickr Budapest Deli railway terminal The Hungarian capital has some sublime examples of civic architecture, including a stunning 19th century railway station designed by the Eiffel company.

But much of today's train traffic now comes through this communist-era structure on the other side of town, a poorly maintained mishmash of stained concrete and blacked-out windows. Déli pályaudvar in Budapest. Photograph: Wikimedia commons Penn Station - New York City Tours Penn Station Penn Station Penn Station I was on a flight from Houston to New York City with a stop at BWI (Baltimore), when my friend Tara called mid-layover and told me that there was a party that night in Philadelphia. So I begged Southwest for my bags, skipped the last leg of my flight to NYC and grabbed a bus to Philly. That’s one of the things I love most about the East Coast – it’s so easy to get everywhere. The next day I caught a train from Philly to NYC on Amtrak – and that’s the first time I ever stepped foot in Penn Station. Serving over 1000 passengers every 90 seconds, Penn Station can be an overwhelming experience. For comparison’s sake, Grand Central serves just over 140K passengers each day – while Penn Station serves more than double that.

Located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza between 7th and 8th avenue – the terminal sits in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. Now almost exclusively the home to Amtrak – Penn Station is the busiest train station in North America. I’m not sure if I would have ever encountered Penn Station from a passenger’s perspective – if I hadn’t decided to attend that party in Philly on a whim…but I can’t stop thinking about that first walk through the station. Rolling my luggage across that famous pink marble floor through a sea of travelers – only to alight onto the mad streets of Manhattan – a row of cabs waiting to take me anywhere I might dare to go. Ready To See Those Marble Floors For Yourself? [button href=”” align=”left” color=”red” size=”large”]Book An OnBoard New York Sightseeing Tour[/button] Pimping Penn Station: Rethinking North America's Busiest Train Depot | GOOD Pimping Penn Station: Rethinking North America's Busiest Train Depot This post also appears on Transportation Nation .

Verdant spirals, heroic domes, river views and, of course, speedy trains: these are some of the possibilities imagined, and visualized in a challenge to redesign Penn Station. Have a look at what four top architecture firms dreamed up. The busiest train station in America is a cramped warren with a glorious legacy. As WNYC's own Jim O'Grady whimsically documented in this video , Penn Station is in drastic need of an overhaul. Some plans are already in the works ( see renderings ), but the Municipal Arts Society wants to push some boundaries of what's possible. The civic group invited four proposals for re-imagining Penn Station and the stadium that sits on top of it, as well as the grand post office across the street, the site of the future Moynihan Station. Four architecture firms submitted the renderings below that demonstrate "there are a range of practical and liberating possibilities for an expanded, world-class Penn Station and a great new Madison Square Garden. They have set a brilliant and achievable standard to serve commuters, fans, and the future of Manhattan’s west side and the City itself,” said Vin Cipolla, president of The Municipal Art Society.

A spokesman from the Madison Square Garden Company replied, in part: “It’s curious to see that there are so many ideas on how to tear down a privately owned building that is a thriving New York icon, supports thousands of jobs and is currently completing a $1 billion transformation. These pie-in-the-sky drawings completely ignore the fact that no viable plans or funding to rebuild Penn Station and relocate MSG actually exist. Not that long ago, MSG spent millions of dollars and three years exploring a move to the Farley building as part of the new vision for Moynihan Station. That plan collapsed for a number of reasons that did not involve MSG, but did involve many of the same people now pressuring MSG to move, including The Municipal Art Society, which created enormous obstacles to achieving the relocation.” Penn Station | New York Attractions | The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel The Manhattan at Times Square Hotel Location: 8th Avenue and 31st Street, New York, NY 10001 Contact: 212.630.6401 New York City’s Pennsylvania Station is usually known simply as Penn Station.

It is a major commuter rail hub in New York City, and one of the most popular NYC Attractions and New York Landmarks in Manhattan. Penn Station is the main intercity Train Station in New York City, serving more than 300,000 passengers each day at an incredible rate of up to 1,000 commuters every 90 seconds. In comparison, Grand Central Terminal in New York, which is another one of the NYC Attractions not to be missed, accommodates approximately 140,000 passengers per day. New York’s Penn Station is the busiest passenger transportation facility in New York City, and in the United States. Penn Station by far receives the most traffic of all train stations in North America. New York’s Penn Station sits underneath Pennsylvania Plaza; a NYC Attraction located between 7th and 8th Avenues, and 31st and 33rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The Penn Station building is situated alongside Madison Square Gardens, one of the most popular NYC Attractions today. Penn Station is also close to other New York Landmarks and NYC Attractions like Central Park, the Empire State Building, Macy’s, and Herald Square.

Penn Station rail lines in the Metro New York area extend southward from New York City to the Washington D.C. area, and northward into Boston. Intercity trains operate via Amtrak, and commuter rail services in New York City are operated by the Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit. Visiting New York? Choose Manhattan Hotel Times Square - A Times Square Hotel located in the heart of Times Square near Penn Station and many other NYC Attractions and New York Activities. Penn Station’s ClubAcela Lounge: Penn Station provides a private lounge on the Amtrak concourse (on the 8th Avenue side of the station) for New York Visitors with various ticket types and memberships, including Amtrak’s Guest Rewards program and United Airlines’ United Club. ClubAcela Lounge offers complimentary non-alcoholic drinks, a comfortable seating space while waiting for trains, a conference room, and several TV’s. History of Penn Station: New York City’s Penn Station was named by the original builder and tenant of the New York Train Station, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Penn Station shares its name with many other train stations in cities around the United States.

The current New York City Building that houses Penn Station was remodeled from grand, Beaux-Arts style structure, the original New York City Station that was built in 1910. At this time, Penn Station was considered an architectural gem in New York City. In the 1950’s, the Penn Station’s air rights were optioned, and the main house was scheduled to be demolished so that an office and sports complex could be constructed. The tracks underneath Penn Station remained untouched, and the new complex, including Madison Square Gardens, was completed in 1968. Penn Station | 8th Avenue and 31st Street, New York, NY 10001 | 212-630-6401 Penn Station MTA Contact Information: dial 511, the free New York State Transit and Traffic Line Penn Station Amtrak Contact Information: 800-USA-RAIL Penn Station | New York City Train Station | New York Attractions Penn Station Penn Station New York’s Pennsylvania Station, or Penn Station as it is known, is the busiest train station in North America and one of the busiest rail stations in the world.

As the major hub of mass transit in New York City, Penn Station moves thousands of passengers to their destinations every single day. New York's Travelling Hub Owned by Amtrak, Penn Station is New York City’s main commuter hub. The Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and the New York City subway system all run through Penn Station. The rail line runs south to Washington D.C. and north to Boston. Penn Station connects to the Penn Plaza office towers and Madison Square Garden. Lost Architecture The Penn Station commuters are familiar with is very different from the original Penn Station. Completed in August 1910, the first Penn Station was considered to be one of the most beautiful structures in New York City. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, the architectural masterpiece spanned eight acres and boasted a majestic 150-foot ceiling and a 277-foot long waiting room. Penn Station was the largest structure ever built for rail travel. Over 500 buildings were demolished and thousands of feet of tunnels were dug under the Hudson River to accommodate it. Supported on 650 steel columns, the massive building featured two grand carriageways inspired by Berlin's Brandenburg Gate that led to the station’s two railroads.

The station’s owner, Pennsylvania Railroad, began to lose money after World War II as people began to move out of the cities and started using cars and airplanes for travel instead of the train. Pennsylvania Railroad sold the empty space above the building in 1955 and it was decided that Penn Station would eventually be torn down. The demolition began in 1963. Pennsylvania Plaza, which opened in 1968, includes Madison Square Garden and the Pennsylvania Plaza skyscrapers. The Penn Station of today is underground, beneath the office towers. Controversy at Penn's Demise The destruction of such a revered piece of the city’s architecture was so controversial it sparked New York City's landmarks preservation movement. A 1963 New York Times editorial titled “Farewell to Penn Station” warned: "Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn't afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture.

And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed." Some of the beautiful details of the original building remain in today’s Penn Station, offering a glimpse into the stations’ lost grandeur, including some brass banisters, glass floor bricks and two of the massive stone eagles from the building’s exterior. Visiting Penn Station in New York City Penn Station is situated underneath Pennsylvania Plaza in midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets. The main entrance is on 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets. Passengers can also enter through the subway stations on 34th Street and 7th Avenue, and on 34th Street and 8th Avenue. New Jersey Transit, the Amtrak tracks and ticket booths are located on the upper level. The Long Island Rail Road tracks, subway lines, ticket booths and restaurants are located on the lower level. Click here for more information and pictures for the Penn Station The Booziest Train Station in America | The Fix The Booziest Train Station in America The Booziest Train Station in America Will My Insurance Pay for Rehab?

Sponsored ⓘLegal Stuff - This free insurance benefits check is a service performed by advertising sponsor Service Industries, Inc., part of a network of commonly owned rehabilitation service providers. By inputting your information, you consent to your information being transmitted to Service Industries, Inc., so that one of its representatives may contact you to discuss your insurance benefits and options for obtaining treatment. Seeking Help For * By Kenneth Garger 07/15/11 No need to brown-bag it here. Come rush hour, vendors at New York's Penn Station roll out carts crammed full of booze right up to the tracks. Image: Photo via thinkstockphotos New York's Penn Station is the busiest train station in North America. Located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, it serves an estimated 300,000 commuters on a daily basis, mostly stolid businessmen and women waiting to get back to their families in Woodside, Queens or Sayville, Long Island after a hard day's work. Penn Station is divided into several hubs, one of which serves commuters traveling on the Long Island Rail Road. Catering to these oft-cranky commuters are dozens of stores and newsstands that serve up huge boatloads of booze.

Out of 34 retail entities crammed into the main concourse, 38% serve up alcoholic beverages. At one popular joint containing a Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and a Nathan's, you can purchase an endless variety of ice cold brews piled high on an icy cart stationed prominently at the entrance, featuring 12 to 22-ounce cans of popular domestics and import brands. More budget-conscious passengers favor a well-known hot-spot called Rosa’s Pizza, which serves mammoth 32-ounce beers at the bargain price of $4.00. Riders seeking something a bit harder cram in to the station's fully stocked liquor store, Penn Wine & Spirits, which reportedly sells up to 1,000 bottles of vodka a day, which customers carry through the fluorescent-lit concourse in dingy brown paper bags. But just as many dispense with the bags, apparently unconcerned over the city’s open container law. Does the otherwise strictly enforced law get a pass at Penn Station? “Yeah, you can drink freely out there,” replies a weary LIRR customer representative from behind her plexiglass booth. An NYPD officer stationed inside the station is more circumspect.

“Well, there are some technicalities involved," he warns. "It's kind of a gray area. You can drink as long as you are not making a scene and you are keeping to yourself. But don’t try that on the NYC Subway System or on the streets. It’s very strictly enforced there; here it’s more loosely enforced.” And if commuters are in too much of a rush to pick up their drinks on the main level, they need not worry. Come rush hour, LIRR-sponsored vendors roll out their carts of booze-filled right down to the tracks where the trains arrive and depart every ten minutes. Beer, even mixed cocktails, are on the menu. And once on board everyone can ditch the brown bags because drinking alcohol on the LIRR trains is fully legal. It certainly makes for some interesting rides. Last year alone, close to 2,300 commuters were ordered off the train for drunk and disorderly conduct. And one particularly inebriated couple pulled off their clothes and dashed naked through the train. In the winter. Top Ten Record-Breaking Stations - Railway Technology Gare du Nord in Paris is reportedly Europe's busiest station in terms of passenger numbers.

Top Ten Record-Breaking Stations More than just a platform and tracks, rail stations are often the centrepiece of a nation's transport infrastructure. We look at ten of the world's record breakers. Grand Central Terminal, New York, US According to some sources, New York's Grand Central Terminal is the world's largest station in terms of platform capacity. It houses a staggering 44 platforms and 67 tracks over two levels below ground, which will be increased to a total of 75 tracks and 48 platforms when Long Island Rail Road's new station opens below the existing levels in 2013. Related project Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is a station located on 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Covering an area of 48 acres, the station serves commuters travelling in New York State on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. The station replaced the original Grand Central Station, which was demolished in phases between 1903 and 1913. Today's structure was designed by the architectural firms Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore.

Gare du Nord, Paris, France Gare Du Nord is reportedly Europe's busiest railway station in terms of total passenger numbers and the world's second-largest station in terms of passenger capacity. The station predominantly operates trains to Northern France but also offers high-speed connections to various international destinations such as the UK, Belgium, Germany and Holland. At the moment services are operated at the station by SNCF, Eurostar and Thalys. Gare Du Nord was constructed between 1861 and 1864 and designed by the French architect Jacques Hittorff. Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, Japan Shinjuku is often referred to as the world's busiest station in terms of daily passenger throughput. The station acts as a hub to connect rail traffic between central Tokyo and its western suburbs through a range of inter-city rail, commuter rail and metro lines. According to some sources, the station recorded an average of 3.64 million people per day in 2007. Related project Shinjuku Railway Station Shinjuku station is located in Shinjuku and Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan. An average of 3.5 million people use the station each day.

Shinjuku Station was opened in 1885 and is now home to a range of rail operators including East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Odakyu, Keio, Tokyo Metro and Toei. JR East section of the station alone has seven ground-level island platforms and 14 tracks, and handles an average of 1.5 million passengers per day. Clapham Junction, London, UK Clapham Junction is reportedly Europe's busiest station in terms of through daily rail traffic. The station is situated in the south west London borough of Wandsworth and as a result many routes from London's two busiest stations – Waterloo and Victoria – pass through its platforms. It is estimated that each day about 2,000 trains pass through Clapham Junction, while during peak times 180 trains reportedly pass through the station each hour, 117 of which stop. All services from Waterloo are operated by South West Trains while many from Victoria are catered to by Southern and Gatwick Express. Interchanges account for roughly 40% of all activities at the station.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai, India Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is one of India's most historic and busiest stations. The station serves Central Railway trains – which covers much of the state of Maharashtra and parts of North-Eastern Karntaka and Southern Madhya Prades, making it the largest out of 16 of Indian Railways zones – alongside the Mumbai suburban railway. The station was designed by Frederick William Stevens in 1887–88 and is renowned for its gothic style, which bears more than a passing resemblance to London's St Pancras station. The station also featured prominently in the 2008 Academy Award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire. Nagoya Station, Nagoya, Japan Japan's Nagoya Station is the world's largest station in terms of floor area, which according to some sources stands at an astonishing 446,000m². It is the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), which has two towers that run atop of the station.

The station was completed in December 1999 and reportedly recorded an average of 1,140,000 passengers per day in 2006, making it at the time Japan's sixth-busiest station. Zurich Hauptbahnhof, Zurich, Switzerland Zurich Hauptbahnhof in Switzerland is often referred to as Europe's busiest station in terms of daily rail traffic. The station accommodates trains from all over Switzerland as well as from neighbouring European countries such as Italy, France and Germany. The station has three floors, one of which is largely dedicated to international trains, another which is for the exclusive use of SZU S-Bahn trains and the final one caters for regional operations. According to some sources, Zurich HB is served by more than 2,700 trains daily. Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, Saxony, Germany Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (often translated as Leipzig Central Station) is reportedly Europe's largest station according to floor area. The station opened in 1915 as an important junction between north-to-south and west-to-east German railway lines.

Today it has 24 platforms which, according to some sources, cater to an average of 150,000 passengers per day and a total of 54 million passengers per year. The station's most distinguishing feature is its multi-level concourse with towering stone arches and a 293m-long façade. During World War II, bombings led to the roof of the concourse collapsing but it was restored to its original appearance in the 1950s. Penn Station, New York, US New York's Penn Station is often referred to as North America's busiest station. According to some sources, the station serves 600,000 passengers a day at a rate of up to 1,000 every 90 seconds. "New York's Penn Station serves 600,000 passengers a day at a rate of up to 1,000 every 90 seconds." The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. It is owned by Amtrak and is home to the Northeast Corridor, a vital passenger rail line extending between New York, Washington and Boston.

It also serves commuters through the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit as well as six New York Subway routes. Tanggula (Dangla) Station, Amdo County, China Tanggula Station is the highest in the world. It resides at an astonishing 5,068m above sea level and caters to the Qingzang railway – a high-altitude network that connects Xining, Qinghai Province to Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. According to sources, the unstaffed station has a platform stretching more than 1.25km in length and has three rail tracks. The station offers stunning views of the Taggula Mountain, making it a sightseeing hotspot for tourists. Share Share on Facebook Tweet Share Pin Share One hundred and fifty feet below the streets of midtown Manhattan, hundreds of construction workers are toiling away at America’s largest and most expensive transportation project. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $10.2 billion East Side Access connects Grand Central Station to the Long Island Rail Road, the busiest commuter rail system in the country, via a new 6-mile-long tunnel. When finished, it’s expected to serve 162,000 commuters every day.

But don’t hold your breath: that won’t happen until December 2022. That’s 17 years after major construction began in 2007, and decades after a tunnel was built under the East River for this exact purpose, which serves as a reminder that not only is East Side Access the nation’s biggest and costliest transit project, it’s also one of its most over-budget and behind-schedule projects as well. And with the nation in the grips of an infrastructure crisis, with roads, tunnels and bridges crumbling all across the US, East Side Access could help inspire more confidence that things can improve, if the MTA could just finish the damn thing. That cynicism melts away, though, when you see the grandeur and scale of the project with your own eyes. On Wednesday, for the first time in two years, the MTA gave a tour to a few dozen journalists and photographers to provide an update on the project, but also to assure the public that yes, it is real and it is happening.

After a safety presentation, we donned our hardhats and orange safety vests, threaded through the mid-morning crowds of Grand Central Station, ducked behind some inconspicuous plywood, and began making our way through an active construction zone. In total, the LIRR station at Grand Central will be 350,000 square feet, with two upper platforms, two lower ones, and a mezzanine. The air thrumming with the noise of heavy machinery, construction workers milled about, studying blueprints and hammering steel rods into the frame of a gigantic hole through which seven escalators would eventually connect the mezzanine to the platforms below. Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, the MTA’s chief engineer and head of capital projects, wiped his brow and said, "This is a project of historical proportions." After descending over 10 stories in the orange elevator, Horodniceanu led us through a muddy, dimly lit tunnel to the project’s most breathtaking sight: the massive Eastern Cavern. Over 1,100 feet long, seven stories tall, this space took almost four years to create.

Tunnel-boring machines blasted through the 350 million-year-old rock to carve out the space through which four railroad platforms will eventually be built, two on top and two on bottom. Some critics say it has been eclipsed by other priorities Past a pair of industrial fans, there's another tunnel, this one lined with yellow, waterproof PVC rubber, stretched north. Water dripped from the ceiling as workers using soldering tools sent orange sparks flying. There, Horodniceanu was asked why the project was so expensive and taking so long. Let’s back up. The MTA has been thinking of ways to bring the LIRR into Grand Central Station since the 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River was finished in 1969. Currently, commuters from Long Island are dumped unceremoniously at Penn Station, which some argue is the nation’s least attractive, most impossible-to-navigate transportation hub. By creating a new access point at Grand Central, the MTA says some commuters will save 40 minutes on their daily commutes. But some critics say the megaproject has taken so long, it has been eclipsed by other priorities.

Nicole Gelinas, a transportation and finance expert at the Manhattan Institute, writes in next month’s City Journal: "Cost overruns and delays on big projects are common. But New York State’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which builds and operates the subways and rails in and around New York City, hasn’t just run over its allotted budget and projected timeline; it has obliterated them. The unexpected billions that New York now has to pay are harming the state’s ability to build even more important transit infrastructure to serve the city’s growing population." In addition to East Side Access, the MTA is currently building the Second Avenue Subway, the first major expansion of the city’s subway system in over 50 years but one that has languished on the drawing board for almost twice that long. Meanwhile, transportation officials in New York and New Jersey continue to wrangle over the aging and crumbling 105-year-old Hudson River tunnel between their states, which carries over 150,000 passengers every day. The current crossway is expected to fail sometime in the next 20 years, but funding has yet to be secured for a new one. President Obama has called it the most vital infrastructure project in the country.

The fact that construction hasn’t started on a replacement bodes ill for the hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents who commute into New York every day. It was supposed to cost $4.3 billion when it was first proposed East Side Access was supposed to cost $4.3 billion when it was first proposed. That ballooned to $6.3 billion in 2006, $8.4 billion in 2012, and is now expected to cost $10.2 billion. Horodniceanu said the cost could be chalked up to New York City’s reputation as a high-cost town. "We’re actually paying our people well — I’m talking about the labor," he said. "And that’s reflected into the cost." But Horodniceanu said the project was now on budget, and expected to remain so until it was open for business. Besides, the costs were justified when you consider that New York City, and the US as a whole, in competing daily for business with other first-world countries around the globe. A transportation infrastructure that isn’t a complete disaster is vital component in that competition. And nothing is guaranteed.

"This a very complex project," he said as he stood in a small pocket park on 50th Street, after emerging from the depths. He likened it to changing a flat tire on a bicycle while still riding — building a colossal rail station without disrupting regular train service. "But I think most of the challenges are over at this point. So that’s where we are." Hint: Use the 's' and 'd' keys to navigate Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, president of capital construction at the MTA, led the tour of East Side Access on Nov. 4, 2015. Electricity will begin flowing to the new station by the end of 2015. On the mezzanine level, workers lay cable and help build the massive escalator banks. In total, seven escaltors will connect the mezzanine to the platforms below. The project won't be completed until 2022. The project's costs have ballooned from $4.3 billion to $10.2 billion in eight years. These are the only trains in the station right now, which are used to haul construction equipment.

The eastern cavern is over 1,100 feet long and seven-stories tall. When it's finished, it will serve 162,000 passengers a day. The tunnels are lined with PVC rubber as waterproof. Construction of the project is almost 60 percent complete as of September 2015. The rock below Grand Central Station was over 350 million years old. East Side Access consists of 6.1 miles of new tunnel. The new passenger concourse and platforms will be 350,000 square feet. Escalators will descend 150 feet, or about 15 stories down.

Question: Which midtown Manhattan railway station is the busiest in America?
Answer: Penn(sylvania) Station