B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos, & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and MTA Announce Groundbreaking for Metro-North Penn Station Access Project to Bring Four New Stations to the Bronx

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the groundbreaking for the Metro-North Penn Station Access project alongside leaders from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority during a ceremony in the Bronx this morning. With four new stations in the Bronx, this project will bring rail service within one mile of 500,000 residents and will be the largest expansion of Metro-North Railroad since it was founded in 1983. By offering rail service to and from Manhattan, Westchester and Connecticut, this will expand access to jobs, education and entertainment for East Bronx communities. Additionally, the project will greatly reduce travel times, provide reverse commuting opportunities and offer a critical second route into Manhattan for the first time ever through Metro-North.

B-ROLL of the groundbreaking is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning, everyone. Boy, a lot of energy out there. Someone told me they thought it was cold today. Really? Come on. The people in the Bronx are tough, right? This is not a cold day. We can handle this. Of course, I'm from Buffalo. I have a different perspective on what cold is, but great to see everybody here today. And I do feel the warm welcome, Maria, to everyone here who's part of this outstanding organization, THE POINT, that just makes people have a gathering place, a space where they feel their lives can be bettered, that people care deeply about them. And I thank you for being the leader of this incredible organization.

We have some incredible leaders here as well. I want to thank Senator, but also Majority Leader - it's an important title, I think we get a little used to calling our senator Senator Schumer. I spent a little time in Washington and Majority Leader is a very big deal, and he has tremendous influence. And we are the beneficiaries of someone who knows this state like no other, who is passionate about places all across the state, but particularly here in the Bronx. And I want to thank him for being a champion of this community, but also of the infrastructure projects that are federal-state partnerships, which is my polite way of saying, "Keep sending us the money and we'll be happy to spend it, Chuck Schumer." So, thank you very much.

And another partner in the Congress, Ritchie Torres - we've met many times, talking about how we can work together to help the people of his beloved district have a better shot in life. And I appreciate the passion you bring to your job and look forward to deepening our friendship in many years to come. Congressman Ritchie Torres.

We also have Vanessa Gibson - what an incredible leader she is. It's hard to believe you're just coming up on a year, right? I feel like you've had to overcome so many challenges, and we really cemented our relationship dealing with that horrific tragedy, the fire that occurred here so early in your tenure. And I want to thank you for the way you put your heart and soul into this community. Let's give another round of applause to our Borough President.

I also got to know as Lieutenant Governor, the former Borough President, Ruben Diaz Jr. You are extraordinary. We keep this guy close because he has a lot of wisdom to impart to me, and we have a lot of great conversations. So, thank you.

Also, another friend, not too far from here, George Latimer, the County Executive of Westchester County. Thank you for being here, George. Where's George? Oh, where is George. Let's give George a chair. Somebody give George a chair. Thank you for joining us.

And again, our leadership from the transportation world, Janno Lieber, whose nickname is "On time, under budget." That's what I say, "On time, under budget." He gets it done. But thank you for, there's a lot of slings and arrows out there, not that I'm not familiar with that situation myself, but it does make you stronger. It does make you stronger. And I want to thank you for being undeterred in your quest to make sure that we deliver this region the world class transportation network that they all deserve. So, thank you Janno Lieber for working so closely with us.

Another person that is critically important to all this is Tony Coscia, the Chairman of Amtrak. To be here, right here today, is an important signal of his priorities, the administration's priorities, and all of our priorities to make sure that communities that have been overlooked for too long finally get justice. And that's what today is all about - that we no longer have to say that the people of the Bronx are relegated to a transit desert, that they have access to good paying jobs in other communities. And that's what's so exciting about this. So Tony, thank you for your friendship and your partnership as well.

And Cathy Rinaldi, the Interim President of LIRR and President of the Metro-North. I want to thank her for being at all these events with us. But it's not just events, it's the work that's done every single day in and day out. I want to thank you and all your teams, all the teams that are involved here as well.

So, I'm excited to be here. Can you tell? This is an infrastructure project that goes back at least four governors. People have been talking about this for over 30 years, and most of you look too young to remember all this, but it's been a long time and a long time coming.

A lot of people have lived here, been raised here, died here, and never had a chance to really understand what true freedom is all about, freedom to be able to have access to transportation without having most of your life confined to walking and taking a bus and taking another train and trying to figure out a way to get to the jobs that are there. All it took was a simple linkage that was missing for so long, and so we've been talking about this a long time, but today, things are happening. And projects like this really do have an impact on people's lives very profoundly, very profoundly.

And to me, infrastructure's all about connections. That's why since I became Governor a short time ago, it's all I talk about because I've seen communities that have been severed by infrastructure projects from the fifties and sixties when they thought the way to deal with the place like Buffalo and Syracuse and Rochester and the Cross Bronx Expressway. You create a barrier. You put an artery, you sever the artery that goes through the heart of a community, and we're going to continue working to heal the wounds that were created from that. And that is what we're talking about overall in our infrastructure philosophy and creating connections even can get to their jobs, their schools, their families, their loved ones easier, and getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible because time spent commuting is time.

You're not doing what you really want to because I don't know if there's a single person out there who says, "I look forward to being in my long commute every day." Now, maybe you got a lot of kids at home and it's your escape, your quiet time. You might have a different philosophy on that. Yeah, let's have a little longer commute. Let me delay my trip home. But I'm going to guess that most people want to be with their families and their friends and get to their jobs as soon as possible.

So, two hours and 40 minutes a day commuting, I bet everybody here can think of other things you could do with two hours and 40 minutes. I mean, you can get in great shape. You can work out every day. You can explore local restaurants and take the kids to the park and the stroller. There's so many things to do and that's what's important to me. It's all about quality of life. And if we can use something that sounds as cold and detached as infrastructure to make people's lives better, that's when I get excited. And that's what we're talking about here. We are talking about making access available to a community that I love. I've come to love the Bronx because maybe it does have something to do with coming from a place called Buffalo where people look down on you a lot and underestimate you, and you get a little chip on your shoulder. You got to be tougher than the rest to prove you've got what it takes.

And I felt that connection to the Bronx since I started coming here almost a decade ago with great regularity. And so, this is an extraordinary place. It's a place that people have no idea how charming the downtown areas are, the businesses, walking the streets, going to Orchard Beach, going to City Island, going to all the extraordinary places we have here. You know, the universities, the community colleges, the parks, the botanical gardens. A couple weeks ago, I had a few hours, and my husband and I just went up to Botanical Gardens here in the Bronx, and it was spiritually uplifting. And we have that right here. And I'm going to continue talking about this because this is a borough, a community that truly matters.

But people in the past have not made decisions that made them feel that way here in the Bronx, and that's what we're rectifying here today. So, we're talking about a way to enhance economic development around our transit hubs. When we build these, we're going to be able to have more businesses, more life, more connection, little coffee shops, little dry cleaners. These are all going to step up there. So, we're going to have a one-seat ride directly into Penn Station. This is going to be life-changing for people, and that's what I'm excited about. And conversely, if you want to go to Westchester, right? County Executive, why wouldn't you want to go up to Westchester, see family, friends, connections, and bring people from Westchester.

And so, this is a whole connection, which is going to be extraordinary. And if you really want to go to Connecticut, you can as well. But this transit desert in the East Bronx is going to be gone. Over half a million Bronx residents will live within one mile of one of these new stations. Co-Op City, I was just there a few weeks ago.

Morris Park, Parkchester, Van/Nest, and Hunts Point, all these communities are going to be transformed in a matter of a few years, and that's what this is all about. And I also want to talk about where people live because we're making these areas more attractive. When you have this kind of transit, look how beautiful that looks. This is going to be stunning and it's what the people of these communities deserve. But where are people going to live?

This is going to be stunning and it's what the people of these communities deserve. But where are people going to live? If you want to be here, they're going to want to come here. But you can't find a house, you can't afford a house, now it doesn't work. And so, I want to take a second to commend Mayor Adams for his announcements on housing yesterday and talk about transit-oriented development.

What does that mean? It means if you're going to build stations like this, why do people have to walk 20, 25 minutes to get to that station? Let's build housing right there as well. So zonings will take place, rezonings will take place that say yes, now that we have this anchor, you have this access, people are going to want to live there. So, let's open it up for affordable housing, market rate housing, let's change the whole community. This is a once in a generational opportunity, and that's what we're doing.

So that's what this is about. We're going to save time - at least 50 minutes in each direction, that's two hours a day. Heading out to Westchester, saving 70 minutes. And also promoting, this will give it an opportunity for people who want to be educated here - come to our community colleges, come to our colleges, come on up here. Explore many areas that we have not been able to access quite as easily.

But also, access to good paying jobs. Let's think about that. In Manhattan, the average weekly wage, about $4,000 - $211,000 a year, Manhattan jobs. That's nice. Now, if you're trapped in areas, let's say the Bronx, because it just doesn't make sense for you to commute hours a day, the average wage is $61,000. Now, if you can get on a one-seat ride to Penn Station, all of a sudden a job that pays $211,000 when that range is available to you, think about what that does to your family as well. So, it opens up your access from this community to good paying jobs in other places and vice versa. So that is also an important outgrowth.

And Penn Station, the Access, I'm sorry, Penn Access, is also going to be a job creator itself. There's 40,000 jobs associated with building this. That is going to be so powerful for our good, hardworking members of the unions to have these jobs for their families and know that they have this going for many years to come.

It's also good for the environment. Fewer cars on the road. We're going to have 80,000 fewer vehicle miles traveled a day 80,000 vehicle miles less a day when people start taking advantage of this. So fewer greenhouse emissions and the asthma and all these other situations that we're trying to solve for right now can be remedied when more people have this available to them and take advantage of it.

So that's what it's all about - saving money, fixing up the lines, making sure that we use existing infrastructure. This is why we can save money. You take existing lines, and you marry them into the project. So that was the brilliance behind this. And we're going to continue working to secure more federal funding to support our investments here.

So, I want to thank Majority Leader Schumer, again, for his commitment. So, we're arriving in Penn Station. So why don't we make Penn Station even better, right? We're going to take you all the way here. Let's get you to something spectacular, Penn Station. And that is a project that I go to bed thinking about every night.

How are we going to move that along? So, I am committed, I am relentless in my pursuit of making sure that this happens because in my lifetime, and I'm not getting any younger people. I want to make sure that our legacy is that for generations to come, they'll say finally, someone had the guts to take on, what, as people are saying, is a challenging project. But that is no excuse. That is not an excuse to me. I don't mind taking on a good fight. And if it's going to lift up people's experiences, give them what they deserve when they come into Penn Station, instead of feeling you're in the depths of hell that you're raised up to the heights of heavens. That is what we're offering our residents and they'll have access from these projects. That is the connection we're talking about.

We have a lot more to do. We've done a lot. We've been working on Project East Side Access. Stay tuned for that. Not tipping off anything here, right? No dates no - soon? Okay, soon. Soon. That is happening in my lifetime. I just wanted to know that. That is happening in my lifetime.

That's happening very soon. Stay tuned, I'm excited about that project as well. And what we just did with LIRR Third Track, again, projects that were dreamed about, talked about, planned about, and never happened, never came to fruition. So, it's all about the people of New York, the people of these communities, letting them know they matter.

This is going to bring jobs, opportunity, and again, better the lives of New Yorkers. And that's why I'm so passionate about getting this done. And another person who shares that passion, and I know will be here with me in 2027 or sooner when we cut the ribbon on this project is our Majority Leader ­Chuck Schumer.

Thank you for your leadership, Chuck Schumer. Thank you.