Penn Station Access

Alignment

Penn Station Access will send some Metro-North New Haven Line trains to Penn Station instead of Grand Central. Trains will leave the New Haven Line near New Rochelle and run on Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line through the East Bronx and over the Hell Gate Bridge into Queens, then through the East River Tunnels to New York Penn Station. The route is about 19 miles. Four new accessible stations will serve East Bronx neighborhoods that trains now pass through without stopping: Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester/Van Nest, and Hunts Point.

The design-build contract with Halmar International and RailWorks widens parts of the Amtrak-owned right-of-way from two tracks to four. It also includes bridge work, new interlockings, upgraded power, signal and communications systems, and an expansion of Metro-North’s New Rochelle Yard. Most work happens at night and on weekends because the Hell Gate Line also carries Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor trains. The MTA expects about 30,000 daily riders and says travel time from Co-op City to Penn Station will fall from about 75 minutes to about 25. A second phase would bring Hudson Line trains to Penn Station with stops at West 125th Street and West 62nd Street, but it has no funding.

Updates

2026-05 — MTA projects 30,000 daily riders

MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer said the four stations would serve about 30,000 daily riders and cut many East Bronx commutes by 45 minutes to an hour. News 12 reported that the MTA expects construction to be finished in 2029. That is earlier than the Q2 2030 forecast the MTA gave in October 2025.

2026-04 — Amtrak sues Metro-North over Bronx track access

Amtrak filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan. It says Metro-North is limiting its access to the shared, MTA-owned New Haven Line tracks in the Bronx and that this has forced it to cancel and delay trains. The MTA called the claims a distraction. It said the real problem is Amtrak’s failure to give the access on the Hell Gate Line that it promised, which has delayed the new stations.

2025-10 — Completion pushed to 2030

On October 27, the MTA said substantial completion had slipped to the second quarter of 2030, from a 2027 target that had already moved to 2028 earlier in the year. It blamed Amtrak, which it said had provided only seven of 48 promised track outages in the first two years. The project was about 39% complete. Its $2.867 billion baseline budget was unchanged but described as “at risk.” The MTA proposed limited service in 2027 at temporary platforms at Co-op City, Morris Park and Parkchester/Van Nest, with Hunts Point to follow, if Amtrak agrees. Amtrak disputed the MTA’s account.

2023-01 — First delay warning

The MTA warned that the project could fall six to nine months behind. Amtrak had not approved a proposed Hell Gate Line track closure, and without it completion would be no earlier than October 2027.

2022-12 — Groundbreaking

Gov. Kathy Hochul broke ground in the Bronx on December 9, 2022, with completion then expected in 2027. The budget had risen to $3.18 billion from $2.87 billion to cover the New Rochelle Yard expansion and modernized signal, power and communications systems.

2021-12 — Design-build contract awarded

On December 15, 2021, the MTA Board awarded a $1.85 billion design-build contract to a joint venture of Halmar International and RailWorks Transit. Days earlier, a deal brokered by Sen. Chuck Schumer committed Amtrak to $500 million toward the project. The FTA and FRA had issued findings of no significant impact in the fall of 2021.