For those of you that have ever traveled eastbound from Penn Station, the ritual you follow is probably well known. You stand in the concourse, semi-patiently waiting, eyes glued to the departure board, and then all of a sudden the track number for your train is posted, and then, along with dozens of others, you scurry towards the staircase to your respective track.
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| Photo: The LIRR Today |
No matter if you take an Amtrak to Chicago or a LIRR to Mets-Willets Point, every single rider is familiar (but not happy) with this ritual. In many occasions, people question why stations like Hoboken & Grand Central Terminal manage to have their track numbers posted sometimes even hours before departure, yet at Penn, you have to suffer thru this cumbersome routine. It all boils down to operations. There is much much more breathing room at stations (i.e Grand Central or Hoboken),so things can be much more consistent and they can post much earlier.
Honestly, most of you know that Penn Station is a madhouse, people going to all over the country (yes, the country!), are all confined into damp, dim conditions, that are crowded, and there’s so many trains on so many tracks. With trains coming in from places as close as Rahway or Jamaica, to trains arriving in from places as far as Miami, Chicago or New Orleans, it’s very difficult to fit everything together especially during the crazy rush hours, so, one late-arriving long-distance train in the middle of the rush hour could result in last-minute changes or shufflings of the track assignments.
For some reason, even when things seam to be going well on a quaint weekend, the ushers at New York Penn are rather reluctant to post track numbers for trains any sooner then 5-10 minutes before given train is set to depart. However, they’re are many patterns one can observe if you travel frequently enough and know what to look for, but the general rule of thumb is that track numbers are generally posted around 5 minutes before departure. By posting them closer to the departure, this can sometimes help with crowding, especially when their are events (such as at MSG) or during the peak.
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| Photo: The LIRR Today |
However, one of the major disadvantages of waiting till last minute is that people will feel rushed, they think that since the train is going to leave so soon, the best thing for them to do is to dive down the first door seen, that way they have the best chance of making the train. Therefore, people will think that if they don’t immediately dive down the first open door they see, then they’ll not get a chance of getting a seat. These two combined reasons tend to lead to fairly uneven load distribution, and this can be common at staircases at the headend of the train such as 7th Avenue.
Another advantage of not waiting to post track numbers is that one, it loosens up the concourse, and during the peak of the peak, that is very helpful. And, if they do post them early, people can leisurely stroll down to the platforms and not feel rushed since “How can the train leave without me if the train hasn’t even made it to the station yet?”, and if people come early they’re more likely to spread themselves along the platform which really helps with loads on the train, because, if people all rush down the staircase into the first 3 cars, then, it’ll be very uneven and people could get a seat if they weren’t rushed.
So, if posting track numbers proves to be so beneficial why don’t they do it? Well, due to the cramped nature of NYP, there are a very limited number of platforms that trains can pull into and discharge on, furthermore, discharging onto a platform with people waiting on it proves to be a very messy thing. It’s also important to note that not every train that leaves Penn Station comes in empty from West Side Yard, a handful of trains during the peak come into Penn Station, discharge, then immediately turn around and head out for places on Long Island (sometimes even not from the OG terminal) without even going to West Side Yard. And, I can only imagine the chaos that could be caused if a busy westbound train during the peak arrives at Penn after the track number has already been posted and there’s tons of people already waiting on the platform…. It would be a fight for the arriving passengers to be trying to get off the train while the eastbound passengers would be trying to get on to get a seat.
While posting track numbers is definitely beneficial for trains that originate in West Side Yard/deadhead into NYP empty, but calling trains to early, despite seaming helpful to passengers, can get pretty messy very quickly. Luckily, the ushers know this, and let’s hope that they continue to call the tracks to trains at the right times.
Interestingly, a little-known secret of Penn Station, is that track numbers vary a lot more during the off-peak periods, and this can be expected since there’s much more wiggle room + there’s constantly construction going on in Queens and all over the place.
In conclusion, while in some cases, posting track numbers early is a very convenient treat, in other cases, by going wild with the posting of track numbers, it can cause heavy crowding and other problems. I’m hopeful that one day Penn Station will become less of a mess, but at this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen.