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Nation’s biggest transit hub expanding
The Lexington Avenue subway handles “millions of passengers every day” ? No wonder it’s congested !
RE:
"When open, the $8.3 billion terminal will enable the Long Island Railroad to serve Manhattan’s West Side, rather than terminate at Pennsylvania Station "
Just a guess, but the “East Side Access Project” probably allows the LIRR tp access the East side of Manhattan (around Lexington Ave.) not the West side.
Daily ridership on the Lexington Avenue line is about 1.3 million.
Is there any news in this story, or did some flunky writer at AP decide to recap old stuff and then Trains picked it up off the wire because it was about trains?
The East Side Project of the LIRR will serve the EAST SIDE, the West Side as per the article.
Unfortunately the MTA / City Administration threw away the most important project by allowing the former NYC Highline to become a trail, instead of the only possible true west side mass transit line.
All worthy projects, for sure, including easing the LIRR’s traffic load on Penn Station by routing some of it to Grand Central Terminal. But I’m confused. How will that “enable the Long Island Railroad to serve Manhattan’s West Side” when GCT is located four major blocks east of Penn Station?
Re: Comment of Mark Stauter:
To answer your question - Yes - 1.3 million riders on a typical day.
Couldn’t the MTA seize the rail through eminent domain, after all, in this case, it will be used for the public good.
The Long Island RR will continue to serve Penn Station (at West 33rd Street and 7th Avenue) and add service to Grand Central Terminal’s new far-underground terminus beneath the current GCT. Thus Long Islanders, of which I am one, will be able to choose between trains going to the west side, as now, and the east side. We from LI can also go to the new Atlantic Terminal (formerly the Flatbush Avenue terminal) in Brooklyn to reach locations on both east and west sides. Access to the east side is particularly important because a large percentage of commuters going to Penn Station work on Manhattan’s east side.
Won’t the LIRR still seve Penn Station to at least some degree? What would really be good would be a tunnel for the Flat bush Avenue line it go into Lower Manhatten.
Line 13 should be changed to EAST side (LIRR already “serves” the west side.)
This project is long overdue, in reply to one question GCT is 8 city blocks north of Penn Station and over to the east side, Penn Station is at 8th Avenue and that is the west side. In the boro of Manhattan that is a lot of walking so it is a big deal to a commuter working on the east side and up town. The article makes it sound as if they are moving the operation of the LIRR out of Penn Station, they are not it will only be an 8 track terminal.
LIRR serving west side seemed strange to me too. While I’m sure all of these projects will have major impacts for those who can use them, it seems most of those people will be those who live in the immediate area. To that extent I’m glad to see the projects move forward. But I’m typically more excited to see a transit project not only serve the locals but also actually go somewhere, where it can make connections to allow people even longer journeys, those from out of town etc. How about the #7 or perhaps the N train serving La Guardia? Or extend the Newark Airport People Mover to downtown Newark, so people flying into NWR can connect directly to not just NJTransit’s NEC trains and a few Amtraks, but ALL NJ Transit trains on the NEC AND Rahway Valley line, the PATH, the Newark Subway/light rail, local bus routes serving Newark Penn Station, plus downtown Newark as well? Making 2 transfers to get to all of these destinations seems silly. I know it wont be done overnight, but I hope when this project gets around to being done, people realize that extending the people mover to Newark Penn makes more sense than extending PATH to the airport. You just get a lot more connections that way, and to PATH users, where you transfer wouldn’t matter anyway.
Most people don’t know or care that the LIRR spells it “Rail Road”, but TRAINS should. This seemingly unconventional spelling is derived from the practice common when the company started in 1834.
It’s a shame that rail fans don’t understand what’s being done in New York City. Yes, the Long Island Rail Road will continue to serve Penn.Station in addition to GCT. I agree that the city and the MTA made a big mistake in making the High Line into a park. Extending the #7 line further west is helpful, but if the city and the MTA had taken the High Line, it could have extended further down town which is being built up. As for the 2nd. Ave. subway, I don’t think our grand children will see its completion. And what a waste of money on it. There were bond issues over the years to build it. This goes back to when the subways were privately operated. So you see Jeffery, even privately run operations can screw up.