NEW YORK - The $1.6 billion project transformed the more than one hundred-year-old James A. Farley post office on 8th Avenue and 33rd Street into a state of the art transit hub.

Commuters who take the LIRR and Amtrak can head to the new train hall to catch their trains.

Governor Andrew Cuomo cut the ribbon on the 255,000-square-foot transit hub for Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road commuters, providing them a bright and spacious alternative to the dingy and cramped Penn Station.

The project is the brain child of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from back in the 1990s, but Governor Cuomo took the venture and put it into fruition starting in 2017.

The big draw for the people who headed there Friday was the 92-foot-high Skylight.

Michael Conwill who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years came to watch the first sunrise of 2021 through the skylight.

“When I walked in this morning I just jumped for joy – it’s so beautiful,” said Conwill. “And I thought, I’ll go watch the first sunrise of January 1^st in the new train station, and the sun came up over the skylights, it was wonderful."

Though the hall is opening at a time when people are encouraged not to travel, officials say this facility opening is a bright spot looking ahead to better days.

The food hall and retail shops will open in the fall.