Penn Station To Close Concourse Overnight As Coronavirus Measure

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — One of Penn Station's concourses will be shut down for overnight hours starting Wednesday night as a precaution to keep riders and employees safe amid the spread of new coronavirus in New York City, Long Island Rail Road officials announced this week.

Penn Station's west concourse, located underneath the James A. Farley Building on Eighth Avenue, will be closed between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. starting Wednesday, the LIRR announced in a statement posted to its Twitter page. Entrances on 34th Street and Seventh Avenue will remain open.

The west concourse opened to the public in 2017 as part of New York State's Moynihan Train Hall project, which will convert the Farley Post Office building on Eighth Avenue into a mixed-use development featuring a brand-new transit facility. The concourse allows commuters to enter and exit Penn Station from the west side of Eighth Avenue via stairwells at the corners of the Farley Post Office building.

Service cuts will be made on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North Railroad starting March 27, MTA officials said Tuesday. LIRR service will run at about 65% of its normal operations, but peak hour trains will be preserved. Hourly trains on the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines of the Metro North Railroad will also be preserved.

Ridership across all MTA services has sharply declined since New York State began enforcing social distancing measures to combat the spread of coronavirus. Subway ridership is down 87%, bus ridership is down about 70%, Metro-North ridership is down 91% and LIRR ridership down 71% as of Monday, March, 23, transit officials said.