See Inside Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station's Grand Addition

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The mood was triumphal Wednesday morning inside Moynihan Train Hall, as officials inaugurated the expansive former Farley Post Office building as a new crown jewel in the city's transportation system.

"It is a testament and a monument to the public," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo at Wednesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The $1.6 billion, 255,000-square-foot expansion enlarges Penn Station's concourse space by 50 percent. It will serve primarily as a waiting hall for Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road passengers, and will open to the public on Friday.

The building is the brainchild and namesake of former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who conceived it in the 1990s as a way to expand beyond the cramped, underground confines of Penn Station. Officials say the new hall harkens back to the former glory of the original Penn Station, an architectural marvel torn down starting in 1963 to make way for Madison Square Garden.

After years of delays, the state broke ground on Moynihan's main phase in 2017. The finished product features 92-foot-high ceilings complete with glass skylights, as well as art installations by Kehinde Wiley, Stan Douglas and Elmgreen & Dragset.

Moynihan's main hall was formerly the post office building's sorting room, whose skylights gave postal workers a better view at the mail they handled.

Critics have noted, however, that the station does not expand Penn Station's rail capacity, and fails to include any new space for subway passengers, who tend to be lower-income than those who ride commuter rail but make up a majority of Penn Station's 650,000 daily riders.

The architect Vishaan Chakrabarti told the New York Times that opening Moynihan Train Hall is "basically like opening the first-class lounge at the airport."

In January, Cuomo responded to those concerns by unveiling a plan to add six tracks to the Penn Station complex by acquiring and demolishing a full city block.

The train hall's opening, on time and on budget, was hailed by Cuomo on Wednesday as a ray of hope amid the darkness of the pandemic.

"This hall brings the light, literally and figuratively," he said.

Related coverage: $1.6B Penn Station Expansion To Open Friday, Cuomo Says