Seat-Free Moynihan Train Hall Ridiculed As Riders Slump On Floor

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Months after it opened to great fanfare, Midtown's sparkling Moynihan Train Hall is facing criticism for lacking a basic amenity: seating.

The airy new concourse in the old Farley Post Office building includes a cordoned-off, 320-seat waiting room for ticketed passengers, but no seating in its cavernous, 31,000-square-foot main hall.

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo inaugurated it in December, COVID-19 was in full force and ridership was low. Much has changed since then, as the waning pandemic and warm weather send passengers scurrying along the East Coast.

Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron posted photos to Twitter showing dozens of weekend travelers slumped on Moynihan's floor. The waiting area, she said, was completely full.

It was clear since Moynihan Train Hall opened that the waiting area was too small and didn’t have enough seats. Today, the waiting room is full and dozens of travelers are sitting on the floor. @NYGovCuomo pic.twitter.com/JVMPbM34vO
— Inga Saffron (@IngaSaffron) July 11, 2021

"It was clear since Moynihan Train Hall opened that the waiting area was too small and didn’t have enough seats," said Saffron, who criticized the space when it opened for lacking "basic functional amenities" and predicted that it would be "jammed" once ridership bounced back.

Saffron's tweets circulated widely, with many suggesting the absence of benches was a deliberate attempt to prevent homeless New Yorkers from sleeping there. (Indeed, several homeless people told THE CITY in January that they felt unwelcome in the train hall, which is also closed overnight.)

A spokesperson for Empire State Development, the authority that built Moynihan, said in a statement that the "guiding principle of the Moynihan Train Hall project has always been to expand concourse space and improve passenger circulation."

"Additional seating was already planned to be included in the final phases of construction as retail and other areas are completed," spokesperson Will Burns said.

Saffron, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, told Patch on Tuesday that she had not expected the tweets to take off the way they did, having snapped the photos while passing through the terminal on her way back to Philadelphia.

"It was just jaw-dropping to me to see the sheer number of people arrayed on the floor," she said.

Saffron was skeptical, too, of the state's defense that seating would be added as more retailers open up.

"People shouldn’t have to buy a cup of coffee to be able to sit down in a train station," she said.

Though it was promoted as an expansion of cramped Penn Station, critics have noted that Moynihan does nothing to expand Penn's rail capacity and includes no space for subway passengers, who make up a majority of the hub's 650,000 daily riders.

Moynihan, however, is only one part of the state's long-term plan to remake Penn Station. Cuomo has advanced separate plans to add six tracks to the complex by acquiring and demolishing a nearby city block, and the MTA in April unveiled twin proposals for large new concourses atop the current station.

Saffron said the conditions at Moynihan were dismaying, given that they coincide with attempts to restore confidence in transit following the pandemic. Besides the impact on unsheltered people, the lack of seats seemed to affect ticketed passengers most directly, she noted.

"I just couldn't believe a brand-new station could be in that condition so soon," she said.

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Related coverage:

• Homeless Feel Unwelcome At Gleaming New Moynihan Train Hall As They Stick To Penn Station
  
• See Inside Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station's Grand Addition
• High Line To Extend Into Midtown To Moynihan Hall, Gov Says