Three Things Penn Station Amtrak Concourse Could Handle Better

I don't make my way into Penn Station in New York City too often. However I was inside Penn Station the other day and I was impressed by a few things; the order, the cleanliness, the relative peace. Of course for every impressive thing there are things which could be done better; namely the waiting area for Amtrak and NJ Transit riders. While I am no expert on public policy or the way things go, still, I know what I like. Here are three ways, in my estimation, that Penn Station could be better stewards of their riders and of the public in general.

1) Remove Exclusivity: I get it that homeless people come in and raise a stink but the only place to sit in all of Penn Station is the Amtrak and NJ Transit area of seating in the main concourse. In order to make the place more inviting they should not have that rule where you have to show a ticket in order to sit down. The guards will have to be more observant and do their jobs and that might not sit well with them but who cares? Letting people feel welcome is better than making anyone and everyone feel unwelcome.

2) Remove Curtains: This seating area in Penn Station is a circle enclosed in a rotunda and it is hidden in back of these transparent curtains; like whatever is going on back there is for certain eyes only. This mentality is counter intuitive to making Penn Station feel more like a place where people can relax and is more in keeping with the exclusivity of seating I just spoke about. Even still, having see-through curtains is just silly; we can see you!

3) Music: If stillness and calmness are what they are going for in Penn Station then a few loud angry voices are going to stand out even more. The Penn Station management should really be pumping some tunes over the loudspeaker in between train and bus arrival and departure notices. It could take people's minds off the stress that their bus or train is not here yet!

Of course none of these changes will be observed and that's okay. I take the Metro North out of Grand Central or my car anyway. Still if Penn Station did a little more work on making people feel welcome and making their station more inviting, they might get more traffic or at least have happier riders.