Almost every administration has a telltale moment. For Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, it may well have come in 2010, before Bridgegate, when he stopped a plan to build new passenger rail tunnels under the Hudson River, connecting to Pennsylvania Station, claiming they cost New Jersey residents too dearly. In that one decision, he seemed to prove what critics would later say: He put shortsighted politics before constituents, and himself above public welfare.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo may now have reached a similar juncture, and it also involves Penn Station. His legacy may rest on how he handles the crisis there.

Railroad officials acknowledged on Thursday what weary, long-abused commuters had probably assumed, that because of track closures and maintenance, passengers at the hemisphere’s busiest train hub should expect delays “indefinitely.” This statement followed the stampede at the station on April 14, which injured 16 people. False reports of gunshots ricocheted through the subterranean rats’ maze, sending confused travelers scrambling for cover.