Still close. 1 lightyear.

During this time above ground passengers get in line to present tickets.

So my first guess was correct, presenting tickets is done before even entering the platform. I can see it on regional trains with turnstyles in front of platform, but for international trains it is unusual. Usually tickets are presented on platform right in front of train.

Platform for amtrak at Penn Station/Moynihan:

Interesting... Looks smaller than I expected.

Has "couch expert"/"couch warrior" vibe.

Instead you get this queue for 1 train boarding on track 13/14. (it is worse if there's multiple trains boarding simultaneously):

First of, are people waiting for boarding here or what? I see all of them are in standing pose. To board a train they need to be on platform where train is, not in the middle of hall.

Edit: also I don't think people understand the scale of NYC's population and train rider ship. Moynihan ridership is 8 million annually.

IT IS SO TINY! Even Kursk train station had 12 million of annual "far"(national+international) ridership in 2018. You can add 59 million annual ridership of regional trains on it. Or consider Yaroslavl train station annual ridership of of 6 and 72 millions respectively.

Source

And while seating there sucks too, at least there is no requirement to have ticket.

Edit 2: In this thread people that don't understand the difference between Amtrak, regional commuter trains, or subways

I presume Amtrak is how americans call (inter)narional trains.

Right, America. They even make people pay to become productive members of society.

Then I don't even want to be in same solar system with millisecond heavy object.

Rads. But radians are fine too.

Mass in seconds? How? I get mass in Joules, but seconds?

If you dont check out in the app you are written up.

And what's next?

seating area where all you need to do is show your train ticket

This is still fucked

On the other side there's a food hall with lots of public seating.

"GIVE YOUR MONEY!"

Just not where seating would obstruct movement on and off the train platforms.

All I see is huge open area. You can even put them right on platform.

This concerns me greatly. For now we have old grandmas sitting on benches(it is scary to take away benches from them), but they won't last forever.