“Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said two Albany-New York Empire Service trains terminated at Yonkers, and passengers were directed to Metro-North commuter trains for the trip into Grand Central Station.”
That can’t be right. Grand Central Station is either the New York City Post Office that service ZIP code 10017, the closed station in Chicago, or the underground in the old IRT subway (today’s 4, 5, 6, 7 and S lines)!
Do the Amtrak spokesman know of the Grand Central Terminal that is listed sometimes in the employee timetable as GCT?
I recall seeing something in Trains from the 1960’s emphasizing that Grand Central is a Terminal and not a station…
This is far from the only landmark in the US that gets misnamed - a local example is the Palomar Observatory located on Palomar Mountain, which is usually and incorrectly called Mt. Palomar. On a more rail related note, the “San Diego Trolley” really should be called the “San Diego Tram” (as pointed out by former state senator Jim Mills).
Reminds me of the old joke about the passenger who asked the conductor if the train stopped at Grand Central. His reply: “It better or there will be an awful crash!”
There is about 900 miles between Grand Central Station and Grand Central Terminal…that’s an awful wide hair! And since Mr. Cole is an official spokesman it makes you wonder what else he doesn’t know.
Many New Yorkers call it Grand Central Station for a variety of reasons, including: 1. The structure on that site until the finishing of the current version in 1913 was called Grand Central Station, and 2. There was an old radio drama show in the late 1940’s by the same name in which the opening credits had a conductor calling out the memorable line, “Grand Central Station!”
Yar! Many New Yorkers have never been in GCT, but they have been down in the IRT Rat Hole “Grand Central Station”. Prior to 1913 it was a station (and prior to that a ‘Depot’) because trains ran through it and many did not terminate there. Ask a New Yorker how to get to “Idlewild Airport” and they will tell you! Well, most of them. I thought the radio show was “set” in Chicago and broadcast from there.
In my old hometown of Elizabeth New Jersey, folks there would talk about riding the “The Central”. They did not mean the NY Central…they meant the Jersey Central.
Hays is mistaken about the setting, as the opening announcement of the series, Grand Central Station makes clear:
“As a bullet seeks its target, shining rails in every part of our great country are aimed at Grand Central Station, heart of the nation’s greatest city. Drawn by the magnetic force of the fantastic metropolis, day and night great trains rush toward the Hudson River, sweep down its eastern bank for 140 miles, flash briefly by the long red row of tenement houses south of 125th Street, dive with a roar into the two-and-one-half-mile tunnel which burrows beneath the glitter and swank of Park Avenue, and then … (sound effect of a train pulling into the station) … Grand Central Station! Crossroads of a million private lives! Gigantic stage on which are played a thousand dramas daily!”
The show was heard from 1937-1953. Pretty cool! I can’t imagine a program set at LaGuardia.
Says who? I don’t believe that is a law. So the spokesman called it station instead of terminal. I call it Grand Central Station. Whoop de doo. Station, terminal, depot, amshack, place the train stops : everyone that cares know what he meant. Those that don’t know better could care less.
Hell no! It ain’t the law. But it is professionalism, integrity, doing the job right, knowing the job, being involved with your job and your employer. It takes effort, it takes brains, it takes pride. That could be why so much of what we consume is made off shore these days.
No, products are made offshore since they can’t get away with slavery in this country like they can over there. Why pay some guy here $9 an hour to make shoes when you can get some little 6 yr old to do it for pennies a day? It’s not about a decent product, but rather greed. Honestly - compare products of today with products of years ago. Which were/are better?
To the point at hand: you are assuming that the spokesperson doesn’t know it’s a terminal. Maybe he does and just misspoke. We know that never happens.
With all due respect, his job is to be a spokesperson and not some railfan trivia contestant. Terminal, station… hoenstly, you knew what he was talking about. Wasn’t that the point?
PS>> to imply the spokesperson isn’t professional? That takes balls. Hope you have more than one word to back up that accusation.
I have been in the communications business for almost 50 years with degree and experience. Today’s recruits are not as well prepared, curious, ingenious, dedicated too often picking up or assigned a job they really have no interest in beyond a paycheck. A high school diploma, stars in thier eyes, and willing to work on the cheap is all the qualifications most employers are looking for and get. When we have gone to colleges looking for part time employees there are virtually none who want to get thier hands dirty at entry level positions to learn the craft but much rather wait for the break as vice deputy assistant to the big muckaluck. I will admit, however, that in today’s economic situation I have come across several degree laden grads who have been smart enough to take more menial and dirty hands entry level positons; they have even admitted they have learned more, an understand more, than if they had taken the upstairs job they had aimed at. Over the past 30 or 40 years I have seen the “good enough has been good enough” attitude prevail in our management and labor force, make a quick buck as fast as and anyway you can. Professional spokespeople for all railroads including Amtrak better know the difference between Grand Central Station and Grand Central Terminal as well between diesel and electric, freight and passenger, diner and snack, conductor and engineer and all else there is to know about the business they purport to represent. It is the only professional way to do it.
Definitely I’ve used more than one word, Zug, and could use many more, too.
That is true in some cases, but there is more to it than that. 1. Many products are made abroad that are of a high quality level, sometimes surpassing what used to be made here. 2. As a nation we have “made the choice” for affordable goods over jobs. Another way of putting this is that both political parties have sold out the American worker and middle class with the temporary opiate of affordable goods. Sorry about getting political, albeit in a non-partisan way.
henry6: Although I agree that there has been a creeping “whatever” attitude concerning high standards of professionalism, I think if you read my (and others’) post on the GCT issue, there is a long and strong historical precedent to call it “Grand Central Station.”
…and too long a precident of not caring enough to do your job right with effort, honesty, and integrity. I am sorry, when I hear or see a statement that is either wrong or otherwise not investigated or verified, I am totally suspicious of the immediate source as either not knowing his subject or not investigating or doing his homework. With that I cannot believe or am unwilling to accept as true anything more this spokeman under question here says in his statements for Amtrak or anyone else. Its not the question about “Station” and “Terminal”. To me its about the work ethic, knowledge, experience, dedication, and ability of the messenger. As I said, I still ride the Tubes and the Lackawanna, Erie, New York Central, New Haven, Pennsylvania, Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the New York and Long Branch. But thats because I am a railfan. As a professional railroader, journalist or spokesperson I would be riding Amtrak, PATH, NJT, or Metro North. And be going to and from Grand Central Terminal or GCT as it is on line and in timetables.