why can't there be things that are just for the public good? why are things that are commonly accepted as essential for travelers turned into yet another rent-extraction scheme? why does everything have to turn a profit for someone? outlets existed there for ages and it took more work and more expense to remove them and install something that is just another excuse to charge people money for trying to exist in public. phones charging off of the previous available outlets were not gonna bankrupt penn station--this is just another way to both make public spaces more hostile and to extract a profit from a previously free courtesy service. it doesn't need to be like this! why would you advocate for things being like this! the world doesn't have to be crueler and worse all the time!

For real man. Let’s also get rid of side walks, cross walks, the fire department and public education too. It’s 2022, stop being entitled and expecting public services. If you get hit by a car or die in a fire, that’s on you.

/s

To be clear, I’m not saying that I am owed power, merely that this is a very small concession/amenity that makes logical sense to provide, they were already providing it, and it was appreciated and used by customers of the rail lines. It’s pretty common to find power outlets available in say, coffee shops, and customers are spending substantially more on the train than they are for a latte.

And to be clear, this is only a public space in the sense that it is freely accessible. It nonetheless has an express business purpose, and general usage outside of the purposes of transportation is discouraged (in as much as that may be ignored). It’s not like it’s a public park or a random corner bus stop.