But with too many passengers, and not enough train capacity in Penn Station, the station fix-up is only a band-aid on the problem. The number of NJ Transit riders has climbed 45 percent in the past five years and is expected to increase another 50 percent after 2001 when the Secaucus Transfer and Montclair Connection projects are completed.

The Penn Station capacity problem stems from the fact that the rail tunnel under the Hudson can only handle about 20 trains per hour, and Penn Station is already near capacity with more than 800 trains per day from both east and west.

A joint planning team called Access to the Region's Core, created in 1994 by NJ Transit, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and the Port Authority of NY and NJ, is calling for a second Hudson tunnel. Without a new tunnel, there isn't much more NJ Transit can do to give its riders the access to NYC that they demand. New platform configurations and station equipment will eventually allow a few more trains an hour through the tunnel into Manhattan, but the day of reckoning is right around the corner.