Where'd the benches go in the newer Penn Station waiting room?

really? no place to sit? I saw a guy standing with crutches, I saw people sitting on the floors and stairs, my feet hurt, the floor looked barfy, and what is with a train station with no place to sit? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!

If you are a NJ Transit commuter, just show your ticket at the seating area on the main floor

behind the BIG Train announcement board. Plenty of seats to be had there!

There is and always has been a waiting room. Where the chairs were removed is the concourse. It was just too crowded to use space for chairs. Especially with njt always running late. The chairs were moved to the less used concourse where the elevators are.

I thought that was for Amtrak only

maplewoody said:
If you are a NJ Transit commuter, just show your ticket at the seating area on the main floor
behind the BIG Train announcement board. Plenty of seats to be had there!

bpod said:
I thought that was for Amtrak only

maplewoody said:
If you are a NJ Transit commuter, just show your ticket at the seating area on the main floor
behind the BIG Train announcement board. Plenty of seats to be had there!

You are thinking of the waiting near the big board on the Amtrak / 8 Ave side.

Ah thank you! Just saw the sign for the one that includes NJ Transit... never noticed after 5 years of commuting. The more you know..

PurpleMonkeyDshwashr said:

bpod said:
I thought that was for Amtrak only

maplewoody said:
If you are a NJ Transit commuter, just show your ticket at the seating area on the main floor
behind the BIG Train announcement board. Plenty of seats to be had there!

You are thinking of the waiting near the big board on the Amtrak / 8 Ave side.

bpod said:
Ah thank you! Just saw the sign for the one that includes NJ Transit... never noticed after 5 years of commuting. The more you know..

PurpleMonkeyDshwashr said:

bpod said:
I thought that was for Amtrak only

maplewoody said:
If you are a NJ Transit commuter, just show your ticket at the seating area on the main floor
behind the BIG Train announcement board. Plenty of seats to be had there!

You are thinking of the waiting near the big board on the Amtrak / 8 Ave side.

Also while I think it is technically Amtrak only, I've never an issue accessing the 8th Ave waiting area with NJT tickets.

NJT customers can also use the Amtrak waiting area.

But...no one wants to wait in a waiting room during rush hour because it puts you at a disadvantage for getting a seat on your train. People tend to wait near the "typical" track where their train tends to leave from so they can fight the masses to get on the train because NJT/Amtrak can't seem to predict ahead of time which track the train will come in on. They're supposed to call the track 10 minutes before the leave time, but it's usually more like 1 minute before or 5 minutes after it was supposed to leave.

And the benches that used to be in the 7th avenue waiting area are now up by the NJT waiting area - again not convenient because they're not by the track entrances.

TigerLilly said:
NJT customers can also use the Amtrak waiting area.
But...no one wants to wait in a waiting room during rush hour because it puts you at a disadvantage for getting a seat on your train. People tend to wait near the "typical" track where their train tends to leave from so they can fight the masses to get on the train because NJT/Amtrak can't seem to predict ahead of time which track the train will come in on. They're supposed to call the track 10 minutes before the leave time, but it's usually more like 1 minute before or 5 minutes after it was supposed to leave.
And the benches that used to be in the 7th avenue waiting area are now up by the NJT waiting area - again not convenient because they're not by the track entrances.

Actually, I always waited in the Amtrak/NJT waiting room on the 8th Avenue side and had better luck getting down to the tracks. I got to go down a (almost always) working escalator rather than squeezing yourself through a pushing/shoving crowd trying to get to/go down the awful staircases on the lower level. Even if I got down there a minute later than I might have by waiting in the lower level, it was worth it to me. And, truth be told, if you make friends with the Amtrak personnel in the waiting room, they'll give you advance notice of what track your train will arrive on before it's called. Just be very pleasant, smile, suck up -- it works! (And I can tell this secret now that I'm no longer commuting!)