Manhattan's Farley Post Office will soon be a grand train hall

New York

AFTER 25 years of talk about turning the main post office in Manhattan into an extension of Pennsylvania Station, construction toward that ambitious and expensive goal is about to get underway.

Next week, workers will shift from demolishing sections of the 105-year-old James A Farley Building to transforming it into a grand train hall for passengers of Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road. The US$1.6 billion project is one of several high-cost improvements to New York's transportation system championed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has made transforming the region's infrastructure, including the airports and the subway system, into a central focus of his tenure.