New $1.6B train hall to serve LIRR commuters

The new year marks the opening of a 255,000-square-foot train hall that expands Penn Station for Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak rail commuters.

The $1.6 billion project transformed the more than 100-year-old James A. Farley Building on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan into the Moynihan Train Hall, named after former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

All LIRR and Amtrak trains are now served by the 17 tracks accessible from the train hall, while providing a direct connection to 9th Avenue and the 8th Avenue Subway.

The train hall boasts a 92-foot-high skylight that holds an acre of glass that’s supported by three of the building’s original steel trusses with an intricate lattice framework. It also features a program of permanent art installations from three of the world’s leading artists, Stan Douglas, Kehinde Wiley, and artistic duo Elmgreen & Dragset.

A six-foot by 12-foot clock designed by Pennoyer Architects is suspended above the hall. More than 80,000 square feet of marble was used for the floors and walls of the main train hall, sourced from the same Tennessee quarries that provided the marble for Grand Central Terminal over 100 years ago.