The New LIRR Concourse at Penn Station

In June of 2019 the Long Island Railroad started construction on a new concourse at Penn Station.  They wanted a wider corridor and higher ceilings than what they have had since I have been on Long Island.  In order to do that, they had to install giant "head knocker" I-beans which lowered the ceiling even more.  That gave the construction workers a place to work, unseen, overtop the people walking underneath.  Man, some people were tall enough that they nearly had to duck their heads to avoid hitting the beams.  And the corridors became so narrow.  It was a bit claustrophobic, actually.

Well, at the beginning of this week, they unveiled a section of the new ceiling with illuminated LED panels of light overhead and it is a whole new world underground at Penn for us LIRR riders!  What a pleasant surprise it was after living under these I-Beams and planks for three years!

This is the new Seventh Avenue entrance which goes directly to the street, and which I have showed you before.  How wonderful and bright this all is with the new illuminated high ceilings down in the concourse!  There is still more work to do, but we are getting there, at long last.  Oh, and the new concourse is much wider as well - all the storefronts on the concourse were moved back some distance to give more room for rush hour travelers.