Campaigners are stepping up their fight to restore New York Penn Station to its former grandeur.

Armed with an artist’s renderings of soaring Corinthian columns and platforms bathed in natural light, the National Civic Art Society has launched a three-month advertising campaign across NJ Transit trains and stations.

The Washington, D.C.-based society, which promotes art and architecture, is calling for construction of an improved version of the early 20th century station that was knocked down in 1963 to make way for Madison Square Garden and the subterranean station that commuters tolerate today.

Volunteers at Penn Station are also handing out leaflets to New Jersey, Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road passengers. The campaign’s hope is that a groundswell of public support will push local, state and transit officials to seriously consider the project, which they estimate at up to $3.5 billion.

“We think that something has to happen with Penn Station,” said Justin Shubow, the executive director of Rebuild Penn Station. ”It’s not just a dismal hellhole, but incredibly dangerous” because of the hundreds of thousands of people crammed daily into the station’s warren of corridors and tight stairways.