MTA’s Metro-North Penn Station Access Project snags another delay

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s highly anticipated Metro-North Penn Station Access project has run into another delay that has pushed off its completion until 2028, at the earliest. 

The project would extend Metro-North access to Penn Station by building four new stations in the East Bronx – one of the city’s most dire transit deserts. The stations in Hunts Point, Parkchester/Van Nest, Morris Park and Co-Op City would put 500,000 residents within one mile of a railway, which is Metro-North’s largest expansion since its conception in 1983. The $3.1 billion venture broke ground in 2022 and was originally slated to be completed in March 2027 but got pushed to late 2027 after a previous delay in 2023. 

Transportation infrastructure alone would open up countless opportunities for socioeconomic growth and development in the city’s poorest borough. The new stations would cut commute times to Penn Station in Manhattan by 50 minutes, facilitating a regional connectivity the Bronx historically lacked access to. The MTA also announced a new plan on June 18 to renovate three existing Bronx Metro-North stations to comply with accessibility standards. 

The Metro-North Penn Station plan is integral to a larger effort to invest in the East Bronx. The New York City Council passed a rezoning proposal in August 2024 that allocated $500 million to build 7,000 new units of affordable housing and improve local infrastructure, schools, and public spaces in the neighborhoods surrounding the new stations. Local elected officials have strongly encouraged the project to help reverse the impacts from longtime infrastructure inequity.

“The delay in the Penn Station Access project is a major setback for Bronx residents who were counting on shorter commute times and equitable transit,” Council Majority leader Amanda Farías wrote in a statement to City & State.

The blame for the delay, this time, was directed at Amtrak, a partner which has been slow to provide weekend outages on the Hell Gate Line, which the project uses. The delay was first reported by Crain’s.

“We waited for years to have Metro-North access in the east side of the Bronx. We are hearing that the delays are not Metro-North but actually Amtrak, so we encourage Amtrak to actually work with Metro-North to decrease the delay so Bronxites can utilize the rails,” Council Member and Land Use Committee chair Rafael Salamanca told City & State.

The MTA partnered with Amtrak to develop the new stations since the railroad owns the Hell Gate Line. An MTA representative referenced a 2024 Capital Program meeting to explain the cause of the current setback. During the meeting, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber and Deputy Chief Development Officer - Delivery Mark Roche noted Amtrak’s role in an earlier project delay. Roche claimed that the railroad is out of the MTA’s control and limited by their resources and processes. 

“So between resources and their behavior and how they make decisions, I think that we are not quite at the end of all the issues we probably have with Amtrak, but they are trying and are changing what they’ve been doing. But it is vastly different from the world we had on East side Access, third track,” Roche said. 

Amtrak declined to comment. 

When the project broke ground in 2022, Amtrak contributed $500 million to the project and agreed to pay delay costs if the railroad didn’t meet its labor and outage commitments, which the MTA claimed Amtrak did not provide for the first two years. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year would cut 25% of Amtrak’s federal funding. 

Beyond the political blame game and endless tug-of-war are disappointed elected officials who want the promises made to their constituents fulfilled and delivered. 

“This project brought with it the promise of increased access to union jobs, healthcare, and education. I still believe that promise can be fulfilled, but only if every stakeholder treats this delay with the urgency it warrants,” Farías said. “Amtrak and the MTA have a responsibility to work through these issues and prioritize the needs of New Yorkers. Let's get it done.”