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Work on the first phase of the future Moynihan Station involves consolidating the post office facilities from a space that once totaled 1.4-million square feet to about 250,000.

Next, crews will start building new ways to get on and off the platforms, which could ease some of those familiar bottlenecks at Penn Station. In all, there will be about 30-percent more access points, allowing people to get to their trains from the west side of Eighth Avenue.

"And that will relieve congestion in the main Penn Station,” said Timothy Gilchrist of the Moynihan Station Development Corp.

Longer term, there will be an entirely new station for Amtrak, using the old sorting facility at the post office, and then removing the iron roof and replacing it with a glass ceiling, so that light seeps in to a place many now liken to a dungeon.

The old loading dock will become a taxi stand.

"The 2018 to 2020 area is the right place to model that it would be open,” said Gilchrist. “You’ll have a completely different experience in traveling in the busiest rail station in the nation, in the busiest rail corridor in the nation.”

The three windows next to the iconic steps of the post office will be turned into entrances by 2015.

After years of false starts, officials say they're optimistic. Amtrak will be the anchor tenant, though the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit are also accessible.

But the train hasn't left the station yet, so to speak. Funding is not set for the more than $1 billion needed for the new transit hall. However, officials are confident real estate money for the private spaces in the new station will fill the hole.

“Relief is on the way, with construction in the meantime to make their life a little more miserable for a few more years,” said Gilchrist.