Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Penn Station Is Busier Than JFK, LGA And Newark Airports Combined
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 24, 2013
Modified Nov 24, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 24, 2013
Modified Nov 24, 2013
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Anyone who has waited for a train during the evening rush hour knows that Penn Station gets unbelievably crammed with commuters. So it's nice to read this Star-Ledger piece confirming its status as the busiest train station in the country: "Every day, these train station equivalents of air traffic controllers try to figure out how to fit 5 pounds of potatoes into a 3-pound sack."
There's a great photo gallery of the Amtrak control center and all the displays showing platform activity. The control center is located two blocks from the station. The Star-Ledger reports:
Inside the Penn Station Control Center, dispatchers stare at the 75-foot-wide screen showing movements of trains from the Philadelphia outskirts to Long Island and try once more to do the improbable:
Funnel 1,200 trains a day through century-old tunnels into a maze-like station that has subways down below and is corked by Madison Square Garden...
The dispatchers are the St. Peters of the tracks — gatekeepers who decide whether your train can enter Manhattan, in a jigsaw puzzle of a transit hub that handles 650,000 people a day — twice as busy as America’s most-used airport in Atlanta and busier than Newark, LaGuardia and JFK airports combined.
There's work being done to expand capacity. Drew Galloway, Amtrak's chief of Northeast Corridor planning and performance, noted that the high speed trains that will go 160 mph and trail improvements will help, "You’re going to go from two or three trains an hour, in some respects, to 10 or 12 trains an hour."
Until then, brace yourself for Thanksgiving madness—or just the regular everyday madness:
Tagged
amtrak
Long Island railroad
mass transit
nj transit
penn station
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Gatorade recall affects drinks sold in New York and New Jersey
More than 122,000 cases are being recalled over undeclared food dyes.
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Oct 5, 2026 at 4:36 p.m. ET
Gov. Hochul declares upstate NY measles outbreak a ‘disaster emergency’
The declaration is driven by rising case counts in rural areas and in neighboring Pennsylvania.
By
Caroline Lewis
News
Gov. Hochul declares upstate NY measles outbreak a ‘disaster emergency’
The declaration is driven by rising case counts in rural areas and in neighboring Pennsylvania.
By
Caroline Lewis
NYPD detective forced to retire after false statements in Brooklyn investigation
By
Charles Lane
Mamdani faces pressure to forge ahead with plan to fix polluting South Bronx market
By
Elizabeth Kim
Dominican man who shot border patrol officer in NYC sentenced to 15 years in prison
By
Samantha Max
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .