[NYguy]

Originally Posted by scalziand

I suppose that it's not terribly unlikely that the rest of the money to finish phase I will pop up during the anticipated timeline. I just find it funny that $83 million is enough to start a project that will ultimately cost several billion.

It's just added to the pot for the first phase...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/for_penn_project_rsmhUDy2kk2ajx9on8q3VN

Sidetracked for nearly four years, an ambitious plan to convert the Farley Post Office into a train station named after Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan got a jump-start yesterday when the federal government kicked in $83.3 million in stimulus funds to put the project back on track.

The funding gives the state the $267 million it needs to begin Moynihan Station's first phase, which will create new access to rail platforms beneath the post office and expanded rail facilities in Penn Station across the street.

Construction will begin later this year and is expected to be completed by 2015. The project will create about 400 construction jobs annually.

As many as 13 new stairways and escalators and six new elevators will help speed passengers to and from trains both in the western end of Penn Station and to new platforms under the post-office building.

Two new entrances at the corners of the post office, at 31st and 33rd streets on the west side of Eighth Avenue, will be the first direct link to the new Moynihan Station, which will primarily serve Amtrak, but will also provide access to the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit.

A second, larger project that will create an enormous train hall inside the post-office building -- complete with retail shops, restaurants and, possibly, a hotel -- will come later.

A date hasn't been set for the second phase, but it is expected to cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion.