My local station is Murray Hill, but I only go here if I either miss Murray Hill when I'm not in the right car, or if I am going into Manhattan VERY early in the morning. If I didn't have the experience I am about to share I probably would've given I higher rating, as this is a very nice station.
Usually every four months, I have to travel to Rhinecliff, NY (check my review on that station). I always take the first Northbound Amtrak at 7:15. This means I have to be up by 3:30-4:00 in the morning, in order to get on a train at 5 AM to get into Penn Station. Now we (my mother and I) were dropped off by a friend at about 4:30. I was stupid and didn't check the schedule. So this meant we were going to have to wait about 45 min to an hour for a train in the dark.
Now Northern Blvd is a VERY busy street during the day. In fact it is one of the main streets in the borough of Queens. People run red lights and I have almost gotten hit on multiple occasions. Now when I say deserted, I mean not a single car is in sight. There were no stores open, but there were several people cleaning in a few of them. Now try to imagine standing in complete darkness at 4:30 in the morning with no cars and just a few people walking around. Now imagine standing there for a good 20-30 minutes, frantically texting your friend who has work to come back and stay with us until the train arrives at about 5:15.
Well, we were able to wait with our friend until the train arrived, and the ride was nice, obviously. So this train station is nice, but please, for your safety, and to avoid fear and risk of violence/crime, please do not hang around this station at odd/late hours. read more