Another change of plans pushing back inaguration of service to Grand Central Madison, possibly by several months...
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Link says page not found.Another change of plans pushing back inaguration of service to Grand Central Madison, possibly by several months...
Looks like this is the just the limited shuttle service that they first intended to start in December. I wasn't able to read any further before the paywall popped up.FINALLY!!!!!!
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LIRR Grand Central Madison service to begin on Wednesday
The Long Island Rail Road will begin running trains into the long-awaited station with limited shuttle service from Jamaica, the MTA announced. The first train into Grand Central Madison will depart Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday.www.newsday.com
The Long Island Rail Road will run its first passenger trains to its new Manhattan home, Grand Central Madison, on Wednesday morning.
The opening of the 700,000-square-foot station, announced by MTA officials on Monday evening, will mark the culmination of nearly six decades of planning, as well as more than 15 years of construction of the $11.1 billion East Side Access megaproject.
“The first train is scheduled to originate at Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. and run express to Grand Central Madison where it is scheduled to arrive at 11:07 a.m.,” the LIRR said in a statement.
Anything you can name took less time than the 2nd Ave. Subway.Well, in defense of ESA, it took less time from proposal to opening than the Second Avenue Subway!
I forgot what the original plan was…did it provide some kind of connection from the 63rd Street Tunnel to the MN’s Park Avenue tunnel?What is often lost in this picture is that the 63rd st tunnel construction began more than 50 years ago. There were many plan changes and reasons for stalling elements of the project, the subway level went into service, albeit in limited fashion, 30 + years ago. ESA was a reimagination of the original plan, although ultimately may be better.
Does anyone know why they built pretty much separate station deep down rather than using tracks at actual Grand Central station
That and Metro North is very protective of their tracks and slots, among other things.Good summary at Grand Central Madison station - Wikipedia, and much more detail in the quoted references.
I'm not an expert, but I suspect it would have been far harder to bring tracks under the East river and connect to the essentially ground level tracks and one level down tracks at GCT. And even without Amtrak or the 20th Century Limited, they get pretty busy at rush hour.
The tunnel used by trains going to Grand Central Madison was completed in the early 1970s, but it's too small for the LIRR’s diesel trains. The tube runs between Long Island City and East 63rd Street, carrying subway trains on its upper level and LIRR trains on the lower level.
The agency’s diesel trains, which serve areas of Long Island without electrified tracks, are 14 feet tall. And MTA officials said its M3 train cars from the 1980s are small enough to fit in the tunnel, but do not have the right equipment to run on its tracks. .
Those trains make up 22% of the LIRR's fleet, and the only East River tunnels they fit in are the ones serving Penn Station.
Is it a big deal that only a quarter-ish of their fleet can't run through those tunnels though? Yes, it's an obvious inconvenience, but out of their many major terminals don't they have adequate equipment for service to this one major station?
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