Can I Store My Bags At Penn Station
Yes, you can store bags at Penn Station: Amtrak runs a staffed bag storage counter at Moynihan Train Hall, $20 per item per 24 hours with a ticket, $30 for the general public with photo ID.
Yes, and that single word separates Penn Station from almost every other New York transport hub. Amtrak operates a staffed temporary bag storage service at Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall, and its own policy page states that it is available to "both Amtrak customers (valid ticket required) and the general public (valid photo ID required)". Grand Central answers the same question with a flat no. The Port Authority Bus Terminal answers it with a flat no. Penn Station is the exception, and it is a staffed counter, not a locker bank.
Can I Store My Bags At Penn Station
Yes. Penn Station has a real left luggage service: Amtrak's temporary bag storage, priced at $20 per item per 24 hours for Amtrak customers with a valid ticket and $30 per item per 24 hours for the general public with valid photo ID. No train ticket is required for the second category. It is a staffed counter, not a self-service locker, and no locker bank exists anywhere in the station complex.
The service is confirmed by three independent official sources. Amtrak's baggage services page publishes the rates and the two qualifying categories. The station's own data record for New York Penn carries the flag "Bag storage (with Fee)", with a tooltip explaining that baggage storage is "equivalent to "left luggage" in Europe". And Moynihan Train Hall's visitor page states that "luggage storage is provided by Amtrak for all passengers, regardless of the railroad operator that you're traveling with", directing readers to the Amtrak Customer Service desk.
That last sentence deserves a careful read, because the two official pages do not say exactly the same thing. Amtrak's sitewide page says the general public may use the service with photo ID. Moynihan's page says "all passengers, regardless of the railroad operator". The narrower reading covers anyone holding any rail ticket; the wider reading covers anyone with photo ID, ticket or not. The honest treatment is to quote both, which is what this site does, and to note that the wider Amtrak wording is the one that matters if you have no ticket at all. For the fuller picture of Amtrak's baggage rules at Penn, see the guide to Amtrak baggage and bag storage at Penn Station.
This is also the answer most travel content gets wrong. Plenty of pages assert that New York's stations have nothing at all, or that lockers were removed and that was the end of it. The verified record says otherwise: a person with no train ticket can walk up to the Amtrak counter with a suitcase and photo ID and leave with a claim check. The service is real, priced, and published on the operator's own baggage services page.
How Much Does Penn Station Bag Storage Cost?
Amtrak charges $20 per item per 24 hours for Amtrak customers with a valid ticket, and $30 per item per 24 hours for the general public with valid photo ID. For items stored longer than 24 hours, the applicable rate is charged again at the beginning of each additional 24 hour period. Amtrak publishes no size, weight or bag count limit on stored items.
The pricing is per item, not per bag or per person, so two suitcases stored by a member of the general public for one day cost $60 in total. The 24 hour clock matters: a bag dropped at 9 AM and collected at 11 AM the next day has crossed into a second 24 hour period and is charged the rate again. Amtrak's page states this plainly: "For items stored longer than 24 hours, the applicable rate is charged at the beginning of each additional 24-hour period."
There is a cheaper route if your plans allow it. The staffed storage points around Penn Station listed on Luggage Storage Lockers in New York City typically charge $4.90 per bag per day plus a $1.99 per bag checkout fee, which is $6.89 all in for one bag for one day. That is less than a quarter of Amtrak's general public rate for the same day. The trade offs are real, though: the Amtrak counter is inside the station complex, and the staffed points are shops, cafes and hotels in the surrounding blocks, so you walk a few minutes with your bag first.
The table below puts the two options side by side.
| Option | Price | Who can use it | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amtrak counter at Penn / Moynihan | $20 per item per 24h with a ticket, $30 per item per 24h with photo ID | Amtrak customers and the general public | Staffed counter inside the station complex |
| Staffed points near Penn Station | $4.90 per bag per day plus a $1.99 checkout fee | Anyone who books | 27 staffed counters within 800 m of the station |
One more Amtrak service gets confused with storage, and the distinction saves money and disappointment. Checked baggage is a different product: it travels with your train, is free within Amtrak's allowance of two bags up to 50 lbs and 75 linear inches, and is only available to ticketed passengers whose origin and destination stations both offer the service. You cannot check a bag and leave it in New York while you sightsee. The bag storage counter is the service that holds your bag in place.
Where Is The Counter, And When Can I Drop Off And Collect?
Moynihan Train Hall publishes its public hours as 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM daily, and Amtrak's checked baggage service at Penn operates 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM. The exact location of the bag storage counter inside the complex is not published by Amtrak or Moynihan; the hall's page directs visitors to the Amtrak Customer Service desk.
The hours question has a subtlety worth knowing before you plan a very early or very late collection. Moynihan Train Hall's own getting here page states that the hall is open to the public daily from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM, and that overnight, from 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM, Amtrak and LIRR services move across the avenue to Penn Station east of 8th Avenue. So a bag stored with Amtrak cannot be retrieved from the Train Hall between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM, because the hall itself is shut. Write that down as the hall's published hours, not the counter's: Amtrak publishes no separate hours for the storage counter, and the verified record marks the counter's own hours as unresolved.
For orientation: Moynihan Train Hall publishes its address as 421 8th Avenue and names the passenger and taxi entry as 31st Street midblock between 8th and 9th Avenues. That is the recommended entrance, not the location of the bag storage counter, which no official page pins down. The honest instruction is the one Moynihan gives: go to the Amtrak Customer Service desk. If you are unsure which building you are in, the guide on the difference between Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall sorts out the two halves of the complex.
Red Cap staff can help with baggage, and the service is free at New York Penn. Amtrak's page notes that all baggage handled by Red Cap is protected by a claim check, and the station's own record lists baggage assistance phone numbers staffed 24/7 at Penn and 5 AM to 11 PM at Moynihan. If you are travelling to or from the station with a heavy bag, that is a real, published, no-cost option.
A little arithmetic on the fee structure will help you budget before you walk up to the counter. The published rate is per item, per 24-hour period, so two bags stored for one full day by a ticketed customer come to $40, not $20. If you are not travelling by train and are paying the general public rate of $30 per item per 24 hours, the same two bags come to $60 for a single day. Because the fee is charged per item rather than per person, splitting one large duffel into two smaller pieces does not save money; if anything, it costs more, since each piece triggers its own per-item charge. And because the price is tied to a 24-hour cycle rather than a calendar day, a bag dropped off at 4:00 PM and collected at 6:00 PM the following day spans two charging periods under the per-24-hours wording, so plan your drop-off and collection times with that cycle in mind rather than with a midnight cutoff in mind.
The eligibility split also matters more than it might first appear. The $20 rate applies to customers with a valid ticket, which means the discount is tied to holding a ticket, not to riding on the day of storage. If you are storing bags on one date and travelling on another, or storing bags at Penn on arrival while your onward ticket is for a later departure, bring the ticket with you to the counter rather than leaving it buried in an email you cannot open on the walk over. If you cannot show a valid ticket, you fall back to the $30 general public rate, which requires photo ID instead. Either way, you need something to show: a ticket for the cheaper rate, or photo ID for the other one. Arriving at the counter with neither means you cannot complete either form of the transaction as published.
The overnight closure deserves one more line of planning advice. If your collection time falls between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM, the Train Hall itself is shut, so the bag physically cannot come out of that side of the complex during those hours, whatever the counter's own unpublished schedule turns out to be. In practice, this makes the latest safe collection time 12:59 AM at the absolute edge, and a sensible traveler should aim well before that, because the hall closing and the counter closing are two different things and only one of them is published. The same logic applies in reverse for very early drop-offs: nothing on the Moynihan side opens to the public before 5:00 AM, so a 4:30 AM arrival with bags will mean waiting outside the recommended 31st Street entrance until the hall opens. Build that buffer into your itinerary rather than discovering it on the sidewalk.
What Rules Apply To A Stored Bag At Penn Station?
Amtrak publishes no size, weight or bag count limit for stored items, and prices per item rather than per category. The verified record marks the counter's physical location, its own hours distinct from the checked baggage window, and any dimensional limits as unresolved: none is published. What is published is the price, the two qualifying categories, and the 24 hour renewal rule.
The surrounding rail rules are worth knowing too, because most people storing a bag at Penn are changing to or from an LIRR train. The LIRR's current City Terminal timetable, effective March 23, 2026, publishes the railroad's own luggage rule: "Luggage should be stored in overhead racks and not take up seat space or block the aisles or doorways of trains. Luggage may not be left unattended. Bags and containers are subject to random search by MTA police." That unattended clause is the practical reason a storage service exists at all: you cannot park a suitcase on a platform and walk away.
The subway adds its own constraints if your route continues beyond Penn. The MTA's rider guide advises travellers not to carry more than they can manage on their own and to avoid rush hour when transporting something big. The only hard dimension in the MTA rulebook, section 1050.9(g), is thirty inches in length or width, and it applies to wheeled carts, not suitcases: the subway has no published luggage size limit. The rulebook does carry fines for behaviour, though, including $75 for obstructive objects and $50 for occupying more than one seat, per the authority's own fine schedule. The guide on taking luggage on the subway and commuter rail covers this in full.
One practical note for anyone weighing Penn against the airport: JFK's Smarte Carte storage requires a boarding pass and photo ID, publishes hours but no price, and instructs that "All Bags Must Be Locked". Penn's counter asks for photo ID and payment, and publishes its price. Different products, different paperwork, and the comparison is worth making before you assume the airport is the easier place to leave a bag.
What If The Amtrak Counter Is Not The Right Fit?
The main alternatives are the staffed storage points in the blocks around Penn Station, 27 of them within 800 metres, typically $4.90 per bag per day plus the $1.99 checkout fee, and Amtrak's own checked baggage if you are catching a train. Grand Central and the Port Authority Bus Terminal offer no storage at all, so they are not alternatives, they are dead ends.
The staffed points around Penn are the flexible option. They are shops, cafes and hotels with a staffed counter and a booking system, they publish their hours on their listings, and they are typically open longer stretches than a single rail counter. The penn station area page on this site lists 27 points within 800 metres of the station anchor, rated 4.84 across 3,583 reviews, with 25 publishing their hours. None is a locker: every one is a staffed counter, and the electronics rule in the booking terms is worth reading before you leave a laptop, since the terms prohibit storing technological items entirely.
If your day takes you elsewhere in Manhattan, the same network covers other anchors. The Port Authority area lists 36 points within 800 metres at the same typical rate, and the World Trade Center area lists 4 points, the thinnest inventory of any area on this site, so book ahead there rather than walking up. Every point across all eight areas this site publishes is a staffed counter, and the total inventory is 88 distinct points citywide.
The timing of your collection is the thing to plan around, whichever option you take. Amtrak's counter sits inside a hall that closes to the public between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM. The staffed points publish their own hours individually, and a point that closes at 8 PM will hold your bag until it reopens, which is fine for a late dinner and useless for a 3 AM airport run. For the overnight question specifically, the guide on 24 hour and late night luggage storage in NYC names the options that keep late hours.
Common Questions About Storing Bags At Penn Station
can i store my bags at penn station
Yes. Amtrak operates temporary bag storage at Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall, open to Amtrak customers with a valid ticket at $20 per item per 24 hours and to the general public with valid photo ID at $30 per item per 24 hours. It is a staffed counter at the Amtrak Customer Service desk, not a locker bank.
Do I need a train ticket to use Penn Station bag storage?
No, not if you have photo ID. Amtrak's own policy states the service is available to "the general public (valid photo ID required)" at the $30 per item rate. Ticketed Amtrak customers pay $20 per item. Moynihan's page words eligibility as "all passengers", so quote both if the distinction matters to your situation.
Where in Penn Station is the bag storage counter?
No official page publishes the counter's exact location. Moynihan Train Hall's visitor page directs storage requests to the Amtrak Customer Service desk, and the hall's recommended passenger entrance is 31st Street midblock between 8th and 9th Avenues. Ask at the Customer Service desk rather than searching for a locker bank, which does not exist.
Can I collect a stored bag from Penn Station overnight?
Not between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM from Moynihan Train Hall, which publishes its public hours as 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM daily and moves Amtrak and LIRR services across to Penn Station east of 8th Avenue overnight. Amtrak publishes no separate hours for the storage counter itself, so plan a collection inside the hall's open window.
Is there a cheaper option than the Amtrak counter?
Usually yes. Staffed storage points within 800 metres of Penn Station typically charge $4.90 per bag per day plus a $1.99 per bag checkout fee, $6.89 all in for one bag for one day, against $30 per item at the Amtrak counter for the general public. The trade off is a short walk to a shop or hotel counter instead of an in station drop.
Does Penn Station have lockers?
No. Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall have no locker bank published anywhere. The storage that exists is Amtrak's staffed counter, and every one of the 27 staffed points near the station is also a counter, not a locker. New York's genuine public coin lockers are at the Statue of Liberty monument, not at any rail hub.