Newark Penn Station to receive $190 million facelift
Joseph M. Calisi
Newark Penn Station will receive $190 million in restoration and rehabilitation, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday. Some $30 million in work is scheduled to begin immediately, with the project continuing over the next five years. NJ.com reports work has already begun on the original decorative floors; also planned are refurbished restrooms, heating and ventilation systems, escalators, and station platform. Existing freight elevators will be converted for passenger use. The Art Deco station, the seventh busiest in the nation with 50,000 passengers daily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, dates to 1935 and is served by Amtrak, NJ Transit commuter and light rail, PATH trains, and bus service. Like New York’s Penn Station, it was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, according to Amtrak’s Great American Stations.
NJ Transit reform bill would strengthen role of board of directors
A bill by New Jersey state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg to reform NJ Transit has been approved by the Senate transportation committee, two years after her original bill addressing the topic became law. NorthJersey.com reports the bill would allow the agency’s board to elect its chair — currently, that position goes automatically to the commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. It would also give the board the power to hire and fire the agency’s CEO and other key officeholders, and give it approval power over hiring in 10 other upper management positions. The bill would also make the customer advocate position more independent; the first customer advocate recently departed amidst complaints he was too supportive of the agency [see “Digest: LA Metro to hold online meeting …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 6, 2020]
New Norwalk, Conn., rail bridge will require IMAX theater to be torn down
Connecticut’s largest IMAX theater will be demolished to make way for a new bridge on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. The Hartford Courant reports that the project to replace the 124-year-old Walk Bridge requires the theater at Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Conn., to be torn down because the theater is so close to the existing bridge, built in 1896, that there is no room to build its replacement. The theater will close Jan. 18; a new theater is being built on the opposite side of the aquarium and will open soon after the IMAX theater closes. The Walk Bridge project — which will take five years and cost up to $460 million — received a $79.7 million FRA grant earlier this year [see “FRA grants announced for rail projects in Connecticut, New Jersey, Michigan,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 27, 2020].
