Editor’s note: Advocates want Andy Byford to lead Penn Station’s redevelopment

President Donald Trump last month relieved the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from redeveloping Penn Station. Instead, Amtrak, which owns the station, will now oversee the $7 billion project. Advocates for rebuilding the station above ground with an architectural design that echoes the original Penn Station that was demolished in 1963 have begun pushing for Andy Byford to take the lead on the station’s redevelopment. Byford, former president of New York City Transit and affectionately known as New York’s “Train Daddy,” left in 2020 because of friction with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and did a stint in London before joining Amtrak last year as head of high-speed rail development. Advocacy groups like ReThinkNYC noted Byford’s track record of success at the MTA and in London, where he completed the Elizabeth line in time for Queen Elizabeth to see its opening before her death.

However, taking on Penn Station might mean Byford would have to work with the possibility of Cuomo becoming mayor. The former governor has remained the front-runner in the race, and while the mayor has no authority over Amtrak or Penn Station, it would still create an awkward dynamic between the two. After all, Byford left the MTA because of an increasingly tense relationship with Cuomo. “They will need to put it behind them,” said ReThinkNYC Chair Sam Turvey, who warned that not going with Byford would leave “one of the world’s most accomplished change agents and transit executives on the sidelines.”

Amtrak referred City & State to the U.S. Department of Transportation when asked about Byford. Neither the agency, nor Byford, responded when City & State reached out.