Penn Station’s long-promised makeover could still include private real-estate deals, according to New York City’s “Train Daddy’’ — prompting a watchdog group to warn that may be bad news for Big Apple taxpayers.
Project leader Andy Byford — the ex-NYC Transit boss known as “Train Daddy” — recently insisted to The Post in an interview that riders will not end up paying for the project, while keeping the door open on potential private related deals.
“It ain’t going to be easy, but Train Daddy likes a challenge,” Byford said.
He said the three bidders vying to be the project’s master developer are being encouraged to pitch “imaginative ideas” — including new commercial activity inside the station and through development of the surrounding area.
Byford described a future Penn Station that is brighter and easier to navigate, with high ceilings, natural daylight filtering down to the concourse, clearer signage and “world‑class retail” that makes the station a destination rather than the dungeon it currently is.
“Let’s at least hear what these bidders have to say, and then we can either accept what they’ve got to say or not,” Byford said about Amtrak’s Penn Station transformation.
He added that the estimated $7 billion project is still on track to break ground in 2027 — as originally promised when President Trump yanked the redesign away from the MTA and handed to it Amtrak last year so the project would move along faster.
Byford stressed Amtrak has “no plans whatsoever” to tack a surcharge onto tickets and said a panel he sits on can simply reject any proposal that doesn’t work for riders.
But government watchdog Reinvent Albany said megadeals could echo a doomed earlier then-Gov. Andrew-Cuomo-era plan to fix Penn Station largely with funds from developer Vornado.
Under that proposal, Vornado would have made payments for the station’s upgrade — as long as it could build a ring of new local office towers and in lieu of taxes on them.
“There are a lot of ifs here,” said Rachel Fauss, senior policy adviser at Reinvent Albany, to The Post.
“If Amtrak is going to move forward with a project team that has a partner like Vornado, they’re going to be asking New York to hand over development rights, and New York will pay for that in lost tax revenue.’’
Final redesign plans won’t be unveiled until June, after the master developer is selected in May.
