MTA Turns Down Byford Bid to be “Full Partner” in Penn Rebuild

The MTA has declined Amtrak’s invitation to be a “full partner” in planning the rebuilding of Penn Station, an illustration of the strained relation between the federal and state transport agencies.

The decision was disclosed by Andy Byford, the Amtrak executive who was put in charge of rebuilding Penn station last year after federal officials in the Trump Administration shoved the MTA out of the job.

Amtrak owns the station, but its two largest users are commuter lines, The MTA’s Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit. In addition, The MTA’s MetroNorth service is creatingnew access to Penn Station, a project that the MTA complains is running behind schedulebecause of problems working with Amtrak on use of its tracks and signals.

Byford said he had invited both the MTA and NJ Transit to sign agreements giving them “full voting rights” in the competition Amtrak is currently conducting to select a master developer to partner in the reconstruction of the station.

NJTransit said yes, MTA said no, Byford reported to a breakfast of the Citizen’s Budget Commission. “We invited the MTA to have a seat at that same table,” Byford explained. “We invited them to sign the same memorandum of agreement ”The MTA’s Chief of Policy and External Relations, John J. McCarthy responded in astatement: “The MTA already has an agreement with Amtrak that governs these issues.”

Chatting on stage with the Budget Commission’s President, Andrew S. Rein, Byford said the MTA “would rather rely on their lease. Both they and New Jersey Transit have a lease to operate within the station. And the MTA, for now, want to rely on the terms of their lease.”

Byford volunteered that he did not ascribe “any malignant reason” to the MTA’s decision.“They are very keen, though, to have a say in the design,” Byford said, “but they decline to be what you might call full partners in the project and have voting rights on the solution.”

He said he was on good terms with Janno Lieber, the chair and ceo of the MTA, and with Jamie Torres Springer, the head of construction. “I'm confident that over time, the MTA will want to play more of a part,” he said. “We shall see.”

Not everyone was as sanguine.“NJT is a willing partner and MTA is NOT,” said one official who is deeply involved in the process. “This is precisely part of the MTA resistance which we've been living through for five years. They have a ‘my way or the highway’ mentality; they do not care about the best path forward for the station.”

On several occasions Lieber has raised concerns about the potential costs of the project or even the necessity for something on the scale that Amtrak and various developers appear to be contemplating. Even in his optimistic portrayal of the situation Byford seemed to touch on the MTA’s view that perhaps less is needed.

“They have said, not unreasonably, they're very happy– their customers are very happy–with the primary area of the station that they use, which is the 33rd Street corridor, which credit to the MTA, is very nice. It's been beautifully renovated and modernized,” Byford said of his conversations with MTA brass.

Despite these improvements Byford stressed that the station remained substandard: “I've not met anyone yet who said to me, well, there's nothing wrong with it. Leave it alone. I love it. No one's actually said that. For decades, there's been this desire to address, if not to put back exactly what was there, but to create a station worthy of New York City or New York State.”

The challenges are far more than cosmetic or architectural, he said: “It's inherently inefficient. The dwell times are too long. A number of the entrances are not accessible. That's not acceptable in 2026. There's quite a number of the station entrances people with mobility impairment cannot use. These ceilings are very low. The finishes are old. It's very expensive to maintain. So, my view is: do nothing is not an option. Obviously, the extent to which we renovate the station will be determined by the competition that we have going on, but we must do something about Penn.”

Byford revealed the split between the New York and New Jersey commuter railroads, both of which are state agencies, just days after Governor Hochul of New York had urged him to be more transparent in the process of selecting a master developer. Byford stressed that he was sharing as much information as possible, but had to balance that with protecting commercial confidences and ensuring that the procurement process was fair to each contender.

The overall goals of the project have been widely circulated, Amtrak officials stress,i ncluding release of the Letter of Interest soliciting developers to compete for the project. Four consortiums responded to that letter and three were judged by Amtrak to have the financial strength and project management skill to be finalists for the role.

In this next phase Byford will examine the plans of each of the three finalists to see how well, and at what costs, they achieve the goals of the project, which include creating a single level station where passengers can move more easily through waiting areas and up and down from platforms and trains.

The project may also include modifications of track layout and platforms to enable trains to move through more quickly. Byford says he understands the public’s interest in this process and is seeking ways to sharemore information as negotiations continue with each competitor. A crucial element of those negotiations is the overall cost of the project, and who pays what. The “Progressive Public Private Partnership” Amtrak is proposing calls on the private developer to fund part of the cost and then recoup its investment later through revenue from the project.

But Byford, under pressure from New York and New Jersey, has said he is conscious that he cannot saddle transit users or taxpayers with long-term costs to repay the project. He said he expects the federal government to pay a substantial share of the costs, which is why he said the White House and Transportation Department will need to be briefed when he presents his recommendation to the Amtrak Board in May.

Amtrak is owned by the federal government. At the same time, Byford said he is talking to both states, as well as New York City, about contributing to the costs. When the Federal Government took over the project from the MTA, Governor Hochul withdrew $1.2 billion that had been set aside in the state budget for Penn Station. One reason the MTA may be resisting the memorandum of agreement with Amtrak is that it includes discussion of financial contributions to the project, officials said.

The Trump adminstration’s role at Penn Station was highlighted by developments just to the east, at the Gateway project to build a new tunnel connecting Penn Station to New Jersey. Trump has frozen funds for the project and the Gateway Commission said it would need to shut work down by Feb. 6 if the funds are not released. Byford said an improved Penn Station was needed regardless of what happened with Gateway.