LIRR looks to renovate Penn Station

The Long Island Rail Road is looking to revamp its Penn Station space, according to the Wall Street Journal. LIRR officials would like to improve the space by adding better signage and more natural light to facilitate passenger flow. “It’s a facility that’s showing its age,” said Helena Williams, LIRR president. “It’s cluttered visually, functionally.” The railroad plans to solicit designers early next year to study the problems at Penn Station and come up with proposals for fixing them, which should take less than a year, Williams said. However, the process to implement any changes will likely be a lengthy undertaking, since any major renovations to the pedestrian concourses at Penn Station need to be approved by the LIRR and New Jersey Transit, as well as Amtrak, the station’s owner. Maureen Michaels, who heads the LIRR Commuters’ Council advocacy group, said Penn Station desperately needs to be fixed, but she isn’t optimistic. “These are shared spaces and they’re dysfunctional because it has been individual agencies doing their own thing,” Michaels said. [WSJ]