Yesterday, the new West End Concourse opened at Penn Station, connecting the much-hated station with the James A. Farley Post Office (the future Moynihan Station). Any update to Penn Station is a welcome change (unless they start removing our beloved remnants of the original Penn Station!) and it is hoped that this new entrance and passageway will ease congestion in the station in general and will become an essential link when the Moynihan Station transformation if fully completed in 2020, where Amtrak trains will also run out of. The new track entrances are technically under Moynihan Station itself, not within Penn Station proper.

The new concourse is modern and colorful colorful, though a bit impersonal in the airport-style way, and comes with a lighted, cloud pattern ceiling, wide corridors and staircases, charging stations, bold signage, directional signage, and advertising for both local landmarks and New York State destinations. It’s clear this concourse is being thought of as a gateway, much like an airport.  There’s also a new entrance on the northern end of Moynihan Station, with its Neoclassical architecture that once in correspondence to the style of the original Penn Station.

The black windows on the right will look out onto the future Moynihan Station concourse

We’ll be visiting this new concourse on our popular tour the Remnants of Penn Station, where we track down more than a dozen relics from the original station. Join us for our next tours in July:

Tour of the Remnants of Penn Station

See more photos of the new concourse: