Full LIRR Service Coming to New Grand Central Madison February 27

Grand Central Madison will officially launch its full LIRR service schedule later this month – this is after the long-awaited new hub began operations with a limited LIRR flight that spanned several weeks.

Full LIRR service will begin on Monday, Feb. 27, sources tell News 4 New York.

After years of delays and huge cost overruns, a hugely expensive rail project brought the first passengers from Long Island last month to a new addition to New York’s iconic Grand Central Station.

The MTA said the LIRR will operate a limited shuttle service from Jamaica to Grand Central for the first few weeks to help passengers familiarize themselves with the terminal, which was originally scheduled to open in 2022. This debut was delayed due to Jamie Torres-Springer, president of the MTA’s Construction and Development Division, saying the security system’s testing has not yet been completed.

The first train to Grand Central on January 25 will leave Jamaica at 10:45 am and arrive at the new terminal on the East Side of Manhattan at 11:07 am. There will be customer representatives at Grand Central Madison. lobby to welcome customers and help provide information.

The LIRR will begin a full service from Long Island to Grand Central Station after the first few weeks of the limited shuttle, according to the MTA. The $11 billion project is a month overdue and more than ten years behind the original schedule.

When full Grand Central Madison service begins, the LIRR will add about 300 trains per weekday, in addition to the roughly 660 trains already in operation, officials said. Around 160,000 passengers are expected to board and alight from the platforms of the new terminal.

Combined with an expanded connection to Pennsylvania Station, the connection to Grand Central will open up railroad stops in long-abandoned parts of the city, including the Bronx, spur new housing developments, and serve as an engine for the economy.

“Obviously, this makes East Midtown a more attractive place for Long Islanders to do business,” said Katherine Wilde, president of the New York Partnership.

When regular flights begin, they will run from 6:15 to 20:00 on weekdays and from 7:00 to 23:00 on weekends. According to an MTA press release, trains will run every 30 minutes in both directions at noon on weekdays and weekends, and once an hour during peak periods.

Those wishing to travel to Grand Central Madison can use Penn Station tickets as both terminals will be in the same fare zone.

For more information on the schedule and other details click here.

Back in April, NBC New York received an exclusive review of the project’s terminal, which will allow LIRR passengers to make shorter journeys. Hundreds of feet below Grand Central Station, the new terminal is designed to provide 60 percent more traffic to Manhattan from Long Island during peak hours, and reduce congestion at Pennsylvania Station during peak hours.

The station was due to open by the end of 2022 but was delayed slightly due to problems with heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

According to the MTA, the construction is one of the largest transportation infrastructure projects completed in the United States in recent years. It is the largest new train station built in the US since the 1950s and the first LIRR expansion in over 100 years.

Tracey Strahan reports on the LIRR Grand Central Madison service starting today.

For Long Island passengers bound for Manhattan, a key benefit of the terminal is the ability to take the train directly to the East Side, where previously the only option was to get to Pennsylvania Station on the West Side and then return by subway or bus.

Built inside a massive man-made cave and serviced by rock-cut rail tunnels, the new transit center is seen as an important addition to the country’s busiest rail network.

“We’ve done our job,” Governor Cathy Hochul was the ninth governor to oversee the six-decade-old project. “There were so many obstacles, challenges and detours along the way.”

The project includes work at multiple locations in Manhattan and Queens, as well as more than eight miles of tunneling. It will run all 11 LIRR branches through the new East River Tunnel with its final destination under the current Grand Central Station. This new route will save valuable time for passengers heading to the East Side.

The Federal Railroad Administration announced in November that it had approved a project that would connect the LIRR to a new station near Grand Central Station, providing direct service to the LIRR in a new concourse below the existing transit hub.

The MTA said the $11 billion project would increase LIRR’s service by 41 percent, adding about 274 trains each weekday. Morning traffic could be reduced from 113 trains to 158, and afternoon traffic from 98 trains to 158. The new train schedule is expected to be published soon.

The new 700,000-square-foot terminal, called Grand Central Madison, was conceived and built at a time when New York City’s transportation system was overflowing with passengers. It is opening in a different era where passenger numbers are still significantly lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of remote work.

Decorated with public art and lined with storefronts and restaurants (most of which are still empty), the new terminal is the largest new rail yard in the country in almost seven decades and the most significant expansion in a century for the Long Island Railroad, the busiest commuter railroad. in North America. The two-level lobby supports four platforms and eight tracks.

The MTA hasn’t given an exact date for when passengers will be able to use the new terminal for the first time, which is actually below the original Central Station, but said it would happen before the end of 2022 and that it could save LIRR passengers 30 minutes on the journey. . Reported by NBC New York correspondent Andrew Siff.

“I’ve been waiting 30 years,” said John Cannon, a Long Islander who made the first 21-minute trip from Jamaica to Manhattan last month. “I don’t have to take the subway anymore.”

Passenger Alexander Rodriguez, a 15-year-old Queens resident, described the first ride as “pleasant and smooth”.

“And it was fun,” he said. – This happens once in a lifetime. It was the first train.”

Many of the underground tunnels that carry rail passengers below the Hudson River are over a century old, some in need of deeper maintenance. The new tunnels built for the project will also allow Amtrak to temporarily divert its trains to the new tunnels so it can begin repairs to the aging eastern tunnels and tracks.

Over the decades, the project has continued to evolve despite concerns about balloon costs. Construction began in the 1960s, but was temporarily halted due to a series of economic crises.

Spending on the massive construction project has risen to more than $11 billion, more than three times the original estimate of $3.5 billion two decades ago. The project drilled two miles of bedrock; per mile, it would be one of the most expensive railroad projects in the world ever completed.

“This is a useful project. But for $11 billion, it would be better not to build it,” said Alon Levy, a transportation fellow at New York University’s Marron Institute, which collects data on railroad costs from around the world.

The money, he argues, could be used for other transportation projects, including increasing the capacity of existing rail lines.

Officials acknowledged that design costs and the high cost of labor in New York City contributed to rising costs.

“This is not a small project. This is one of the greatest engineering achievements. And it’s a tribute to the MTA for being able to overcome what I would call some bureaucratic delays, development delays,” said Mitchell Moss, professor of urban policy and planning at New York University.

Despite the setbacks, Tom Wright, president of the Regional Planning Association, previously hailed the new station as “an engine of economic growth and prosperity,” even as the region “still faces pressing challenges of transportation, housing, and sustainability.”

“Because this region has an interconnected transit network, when you make improvements, the beneficiaries actually spread throughout the system,” said Wright, whose nonprofit develops and advocates ways to improve the region’s economy, environment, and quality of life.