Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York State, opened the new Moynihan Train Hall on 1 January. The hall is located in the historic and recently renovated Farley building in central Manhattan. It covers an area of 32,000 m² and enlarges the concourse space of Penn Station – one of the country’s busiest – by 50%.

Ineco worked on the project in 2018 and 2019, providing Operational Readiness and Transfer (ORAT) services to WSP USA for the new underground train hall (see IT65), which will serve two operators: Amtrak, with 16 medium and long-distance lines, and LIRR, with 10 commuter lines.

The work carried out by Ineco included preparing a detailed programme of activities, designing and commissioning the structure, coordinating the various work groups, creating a risk register, identifying and evaluating processes, and preparing the ORAT manual.

Ineco will continue to collaborate with the company Arcadis to provide consultancy services for the operational readiness and transfer (ORAT) of the new terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ). Terminal 1, which will replace the old terminal building A built in 1973, will feature 33 boarding gates, a new aircraft parking apron, a public car park with 2,750 spaces and new access roads.

Texas Central Partners, the private developer of a high-speed project that will link the cities of Dallas and Houston, has chosen Renfe and Adif as strategic partners for the operation and maintenance of the 379-kilometre line. Ineco, as a state-owned company in the Fomento Group, is providing technical assistance to Renfe Operadora in relation to the study and analysis of the documentation and technical parameters for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the so-called Texas Bullet Train. It is a ground-breaking project in the US which involves connecting North Texas with Houston in less than 90 minutes, with an intermediate station in the Brazos Valley. The stations will be located next to road and public transport networks.

Each year, New York’s Penn Station handles more passengers than the JFK, Newark and LaGuardia Airports put together. With more than 650,000 users a day and connections to subway, bus lines and taxis, it is the busiest railway station in the US. As a result, it suffers from severe congestion, which greatly affects the comfort and welfare of users, since the space available and facilities were not designed for such a large volume of travellers. In addition, in 1963, much of the original station was demolished to build Madison Square Garden. Since then, the number of passengers has tripled.

The Moynihan is slated to go into operation at the beginning  of 2021, making it a highly complex challenge

After years of projects and negotiations, the State of New York, through the public entity Empire State Development Corporation (ESD) finally reached an agreement with a private investment trust and concessionaire (Related-Vornado) to convert the Farley Post Office into a modern railway station in the centre of Manhattan. The railway complex is completed by the Farley Building, a spectacular construction that occupies two blocks –32,000 m²– completed in 1913, which until now housed New York’s main post office, located opposite Penn Station.

The Moynihan Train Hall project, named in honour of the senator who promoted it three decades ago, will service two operators: Amtrak, with 16 medium and long-distance lines, and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), with 10 commuter lines. In the interim, work is being carried out in the current station (new access routes, renovation of the traveller information system, etc.) to alleviate saturation and improve quality of service while the new transfer station is being built.

Moynihan is slated to go into operation at the beginning of 2021, making it a highly complex challenge. WSP USA, acting as programme manager (overall project supervisor) for Empire State Development (ESD), selected Ineco’s proposal to provide operational readiness and transfer (ORAT) services for the new facilities in September 2018.

A month later, the company began work to ensure that everything would be ready for the opening. While the works are being executed, the interventions of a long list of participants must be coordinated: owners, contractors, architects, tenants, private investors and numerous municipal, state and federal authorities.

Ineco’s work includes planning the entire process of putting the Moynihan Train Hall into operation and opening it to the public

Ineco’s work includes planning the entire process of putting the Moynihan Train Hall into operation and opening it to the public. This will take 30 months and includes coordination of the different work groups, planning and execution of operational trials, designing and carrying out familiarisation and orientation of the personnel of the different project participants and completion of the process with operational transfer and opening. To achieve all of this, Ineco will be applying the ORAT methodology that it has developed and refined over the years and which has demonstrated its effectiveness.

Ineco has collaborated with the company Arcadis on the definition of the scope of the project for the commissioning and Operational Readiness and Transfer (ORAT) of the new terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. Terminal A will replace the old building, which was constructed in 1973 and exceeded 9 million passengers, handling 10 million in 2015. The new project will increase capacity and significantly reduce travel times to boarding gates.

The company has extensive experience in ORAT in more than 20 airports, from its first works with Aena in Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga) to the current contract, in collaboration with Aena, to carry out the Operational Readiness and Transfer of the new terminal at the airport at Abu Dhabi, the Midfield Terminal Complex, designed by KPF, which is expected to serve more than 30 million passengers. This work is included within the framework contract for the Project Management of the expansion programme and is the first contract executed by Ineco in the USA.

In April, the city of Miami hosted the 7th World Strategic Forum, with Ineco’s chairman, Isaac Martín-Barbero (in the photo, second to the right) participating in the presentation of the plenary session on Infrastructure: Engine for Growthand in the round-table discussion Shaping the Agenda for Sustainable Growth. Politicians and businessmen from around the world attend this forum –organized by a non-profit organization– which fosters dialogue between companies, governments and institutions on the development and evolution of the world economy.