The head of the Ministry of US Transport (DOT) announced that the Trump administration would resume the reconstruction of Penn Station in New York, withdrawing it from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
In addition to the transport department, Amtrak – which is funded by the federal government – will now lead the project.
Penn Station sees more than 600,000 commuters each day and is the busiest transit center in the Western hemisphere. The MTA has tried for years to execute its resort renovation plan in order to increase the train service in New York and found itself mired in the controversy due to the competing priorities of its various stakeholders. Some of them include MTA, Amtrak, NJ Transit and Madison Square Garden (the place at the top of Penn Station).
The DOT said in a statement that this decision “would allow taxpayers of around $ 120 million” and that Trump “also defends a public-private partnership model for Penn Station, operating innovation in the private sector and capital to minimize financial risk for taxpayers”.
The declaration did not specify how, exactly, this would allow taxpayers to save money or what the administration’s plans for renovations include.
AMTRAK officials did not immediately respond to the Guardian comments.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement: “New York deserves a Penn station which reflects American size and is safe and clean.
“The history of ineffectiveness, waste and mTTA management also meant that a new approach is necessary.
The takeover of the project by Amtrak is barely a month after his CEO, Stephen Gardner, left his post “to make sure that Amtrak continues to enjoy the whole faith and the confidence of this administration”, according to ABC7.
Gardner’s resignation took place in the immediate consequences of the Ally Elon Musk’s remarks of Trump, who said at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom conference in March that he was “a kind of embarrassment” of the way other countries “much better the railway of passengers than we” and that Amtrak is a sad situation “. Musk added that he thought that Amtrak should be privatized.
