The Trump administration’s plan to begin rebuilding Penn Station in 2027 doesn’t officially involve a rebranding — though Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was coy when asked about that possibility Wednesday.
“I imagine you’re asking, ‘is this going to be Trump Station?’” Duffy replied when asked if the newly redesigned station would keep the name that’s adorned NYC maps for more than a century or become another Trump-branded edifice in New York City.
“I think that has a nice ring to it,” Duffy said.
But, he said, “We’re not here to announce a name change,” as he stood in the Penn Station taxiway next to Amtrak’s Andy Byford and Deputy Transportation Secretary Steve Bradbury.
“If you want to have a conversation about name changes, that’s a conversation that can happen at some other point.”
As first reported by the Daily News, the Trump administration announced Wednesday — just five months after it took over the project to rebuild the station from the MTA — that it would have shovels in the ground by the end of 2027 on a project that has bedeviled Gotham since the 1990s.
Duffy said Wednesday that that was because Trump, a Queens native who has threatened to send troops to his hometown, had a special place in his heart for the Big Apple.
“I think we are blessed to have a president who loves New York,” Duffy said. “New York has given the president a little bit of push-back, but he loves all of you.”
“What’s great for us is that he actually cares about the project that we’re engaging in here at Penn Station,” he added. “He wants to know about the developers that may bid and how it’s going to look, because he wants to make sure that this is a great representation for his administration, but he wants it to serve the New York people incredibly well.”
So far, however, the actual details behind the plan to rebuild Penn Station remains somewhat of a blank slate.
Byford, the Amtrak official and former NYC Transit head who has come on to the project as a special advisor, reiterated Wednesday that some of the key details — including how much the project will cost — are contingent on which design Amtrak and USDOT ultimately choose, and how the expected public-private partnership is structured.
“Today we are officially providing advance notice for the solicitation of a master developer,” Byford said. “From today, firms interested in working on this project can officially start the process of becoming our master developer partner — ladies and gentlemen, the steps to completely transform Penn Station starts today.”
“Let me be clear on this: We’re going to evaluate everything,” Byford said of expected proposals. “It will be an open and fair competition with no preconceived notions of the outcome.”
The feds plan to announce a chosen developer in May of next year — giving them 19 months to complete design work and federally mandated environmental reviews if they want work to begin by the end of 2027.
Regardless of the chosen plan, Byford said again Wednesday that any serious plan will include an open, single-level mezzanine and improved circulation of passengers to and from train platforms — and will focus on increasing the efficiency of the station in its current footprint.
“I want, in the future, this station to ooze excellence in every form,” Byford said.
