I was on the first train. I have the gold ticket, the badge, and the hat to prove it.That said, it's about time. For many years I worked on the UES and getting there from Penn was a pain. I had to take a 7th Avenue train to Times Square, the "Crossroads of the World", a station which is a shameful dump, change to the Shuttle to get to Grand Central, and then take a Lex to the Upper East Side. The LIRR servicing Grand Central takes much of the torture out of my commute.That said, as soon as I got into Grand Central proper I encountered beggars, homeless, and some nitwit banging away on bongos.And where are the benches? Long corridors and no place to sit. I did find one little area to sit in Grand Central proper and got harassed by some "security" guard to show my ticket. The more things change, the more they stay the same.A few words about Penn Station. It's a dump that needs work, but don't go overboard trying to re-create the station that was taken down in or about 1966. Just clean it up, modernize it, light it better, and add some benches where we can sit, munch on some Rosa's pizza, and down it with some Starbucks while we wait for our trains. Plus, it's time to re-open the tunnel which connects Penn with the 6th Avenue line a block away. Don't get me started on that wasteful Moynihan Hall. Suffice it to say there are 21 tracks in and out of Penn and Moynihan is missing 9 of them, plus it's a block farther west from subway connections. Genius!

I was on the first train. I have the gold ticket, the badge, and the hat to prove it.That said, it's about time. For many years I worked on the UES and getting there from Penn was a pain. I had to take a 7th Avenue train to Times Square, the "Crossroads of the World", a station which is a shameful dump, change to the Shuttle to get to Grand Central, and then take a Lex to the Upper East Side. The LIRR servicing Grand Central takes much of the torture out of my commute.That said, as soon as I got into Grand Central proper I encountered beggars, homeless, and some nitwit banging away on bongos.And where are the benches? Long corridors and no place to sit. I did find one little area to sit in Grand Central proper and got harassed by some "security" guard to show my ticket. The more things change, the more they stay the same.A few words about Penn Station. It's a dump that needs work, but don't go overboard trying to re-create the station that was taken down in or about 1966. Just clean it up, modernize it, light it better, and add some benches where we can sit, munch on some Rosa's pizza, and down it with some Starbucks while we wait for our trains. Plus, it's time to re-open the tunnel which connects Penn with the 6th Avenue line a block away. Don't get me started on that wasteful Moynihan Hall. Suffice it to say there are 21 tracks in and out of Penn and Moynihan is missing 9 of them, plus it's a block farther west from subway connections. Genius!

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