First, the good news: People who arrive to New York by intercity rail no longer experience the city like rats.
Beyond that, it’s difficult to say that taxpayers are exceptionally well served by $1.6 billion they just spent to convert a portion of the James A. Farley Building from postal service into an arrivals and departure hall for Amtrak and some Long Island Rail Road passengers.
For decades since the demolition of the original Pennsylvania Station, of course, those passengers were poorly served by that epochal building’s ne’er-do-well replacement: a series of rabbit warrens under Madison Square Garden that felt as if they were being crushed by the arena itself.