Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 22, 2008

Pennsylvania Station (commonly known as "Penn Station") is the major intercity rail station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex at 8th Avenue and 31st Street in Midtown Manhattan, and is owned by Amtrak. Pennsylvania Station is named for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), its builder and original tenant, and shares its name with several stations in other cities. The current facility is the substantially remodeled underground remnant of a much grander structure designed by McKim, Mead, and White and completed in 1910. The original Pennsylvania Station was an outstanding masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City. The above-ground portion of the original structure was demolished in 1964 and replaced by the present Pennsylvania Plaza complex, including the fourth and current Madison Square Garden. Serving 600,000 passengers a day (compared to 140,000 across town at Grand Central Terminal) at a rate of up to a thousand every 90 seconds, Penn Station is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United States and by far the busiest train station in North America. Penn Station is at the center of the Northeast Corridor, an electrified passenger rail line extending south to Washington, D.C., and north to Boston. Intercity trains are operated by Amtrak, while commuter rail services are operated by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. The station is also connected to six New York City Subway lines. Penn Station is the busiest Amtrak station in the United States. The station saw 4.3 million Amtrak boardings in 2004, more than double the traffic at the next busiest station, Union Station in Washington, D.C. Penn Station's assigned IATA airport code is ZYP, and its Amtrak and NJ Transit station code is NYP.