What's delaying East Side Access? Questions and answers about the project's derailed opening
For nearly five years, and as recently as last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told Long Island commuters that they would be able to take an LIRR train to Grand Central Madison by the end of 2022. That didn't happen.
Now, two weeks into 2023, LIRR riders continue to wonder what has become of the MTA’s $11.1 billion East Side Access megaproject and the 700,000-square-foot new station they had hoped to visit by now.
Since the start of the new year, the MTA has been relatively quiet about what's holding up the project and when the LIRR's new Manhattan home, once expected to be completed in 2009, might open. Transit officials recently provided more information, including the possibility of holding contractors financially liable for the latest setbacks, and more details on the ventilation problems at the heart of the holdup.
Here are answers to some questions surrounding East Side Access.
When will Grand Central Madison likely open?
When MTA capital construction chief Jamie Torres-Springer announced on Dec. 23 that the station would not open in 2022, he said it would "take more than a few days" to resolve the issues holding up the effort, and that the station would open "as soon as possible in January."
At a news conference Wednesday, MTA chairman Janno Lieber said only that a January opening is "possible," but would not commit to any date. "We're working on it. I'm not putting a date on it, but we're making progress," he said.
Is the project finished?
Lieber said Wednesday that "the project is done." But, until LIRR riders are able to take a train to Grand Central, the MTA will not have accomplished the goal of East Side Access.
“It’s like you’re having a house built and you go to look at it. It looks done, all the rooms are finished, it has that new house smell — but you can’t move in," MTA chief of external relations John McCarthy said. "That’s frustrating and that’s how this feels."
As evidence that the new station is "ready to go," as Torres-Springer said during a tour in December, the MTA noted that LIRR test trains already are running, without passengers, to and from Grand Central.
Although Lieber suggested Wednesday that work on the project is complete, the authority previously has acknowledged that some elements of construction have been delayed and would last into the first quarter of this year. MTA officials have said the leftover work — which includes painting, commissioning an escalator, and making other finishes — would not impact the commencement of LIRR service to Grand Central. It also will take a little longer to populate the many retail businesses setting up in the new station.
What’s holding up the opening of Grand Central Madison?
The main obstacle involves the station's ventilation system, and the ability of exhaust fans to clear the air in one "zone" of the new station’s concourse in the event of a fire or other incident that causes smoke to spread through Grand Central Madison, Torres-Springer has said. The air is getting mixed with that from the zone just above — in Grand Central Terminal’s dining concourse, which includes several kitchens.
"There’s one area that’s near the entrance from the existing Grand Central’s lower level, where the exhaust system was not able to suck enough air, because there were counteractive air flows that were coming from existing Grand Central," Lieber said Wednesday. "That’s literally it. And we’re addressing those engineering issues with a variety of tools.”
Until the issue is resolved, the new station cannot meet certain safety standards to open. MTA officials said they are working to separate the air flow from the two zones, and will then conduct tests to ensure the system is working properly.
What will LIRR service to Grand Central look like when it opens?
The MTA said Friday it still plans to kick off service to Grand Central with a shuttle train between Jamaica and the new station. The "Grand Central Direct," as it's being called, will run every 30 minutes during off-peak hours, and every hour during peak hours.
LIRR interim president Catherine Rinaldi has said the railroad will give riders at least three weeks' notice before launching its full service plan for East Side Access. Final schedules have not been released yet. It will include up to 24 trains an hour running into and out of Grand Central, but also fewer trains to Penn Station during the morning rush hour and the elimination of most direct service between stations on Long Island and in Brooklyn.
Didn’t the head of the MTA promise East Side Access would not be delayed again?
Yes. Upon taking over the project, following multiple delays, Lieber vowed in 2018 that the 2022 completion date was “absolutely written in stone.” Even though the MTA didn't keep that promise, Lieber has defended his decision to stick to the 2022 date well into December of last year, saying it kept pressure on contractors to work hard and helped create a culture of accountability at the MTA.
“We wouldn’t be anywhere near the end if I had not set this goal,” Lieber told Newsday in November.
On Wednesday, Lieber stood by setting the deadline.
“For years, when there were problems with East Side Access, the answer was, 'We’re going to push it back three years, four years, an untold number [of] years,' " Lieber said Wednesday. "We didn’t do that. We said we’re getting it done. And the thing is finished. And now we’re counting days and weeks and struggling through this one last issue.”
Are the delays driving up the costs of East Side Access?
So far, they have not, according to Lieber. The project's $11.13 billion budget "has ample contingency" built in to address unforeseen issues as they've come up, "So there is no additional costs that we anticipate at this time,” Lieber said.
An independent engineering firm hired by the MTA to review the project in its most recent report in May agreed that the project budget “remains sufficient to complete the work” and to address some potential safety code issues that already were on the horizon eight months ago.
If there are additional costs from the issues with the ventilation system, Lieber suggested that the MTA could look to recover them from contractors' insurance policies under provisions addressing "errors and omissions."
"If some imperfection in the engineering were to blame — not impossible — that didn’t take account of the impact of the existing Grand Central’s air flows, that will be an interesting discussion," Lieber said. "I’m not paying for extra work that is necessitated because somebody, however well-intentioned, didn’t design something perfectly.”
The other work still going on at Grand Central Madison is within the scope of existing contracts, according to the MTA.
When LIRR trains begin running to Grand Central Madison, what’s a ticket going to cost, and how long will the trip take?
Tickets will cost the same amount as a trip to Penn Station. Under the current pricing structure, a trip from Hicksville to Grand Central Terminal will cost $14 during peak hours, and $10.25 during the off-peak.
MTA officials have said travel times for Grand Central will be roughly the same as those for Penn Station — about 17 to 20 minutes to and from Jamaica, depending on how many and which stops a train makes.
For nearly five years, and as recently as last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told Long Island commuters that they would be able to take an LIRR train to Grand Central Madison by the end of 2022. That didn't happen.
Now, two weeks into 2023, LIRR riders continue to wonder what has become of the MTA’s $11.1 billion East Side Access megaproject and the 700,000-square-foot new station they had hoped to visit by now.
Since the start of the new year, the MTA has been relatively quiet about what's holding up the project and when the LIRR's new Manhattan home, once expected to be completed in 2009, might open. Transit officials recently provided more information, including the possibility of holding contractors financially liable for the latest setbacks, and more details on the ventilation problems at the heart of the holdup.
Here are answers to some questions surrounding East Side Access.
When will Grand Central Madison likely open?
When MTA capital construction chief Jamie Torres-Springer announced on Dec. 23 that the station would not open in 2022, he said it would "take more than a few days" to resolve the issues holding up the effort, and that the station would open "as soon as possible in January."
At a news conference Wednesday, MTA chairman Janno Lieber said only that a January opening is "possible," but would not commit to any date. "We're working on it. I'm not putting a date on it, but we're making progress," he said.
Is the project finished?
Lieber said Wednesday that "the project is done." But, until LIRR riders are able to take a train to Grand Central, the MTA will not have accomplished the goal of East Side Access.
“It’s like you’re having a house built and you go to look at it. It looks done, all the rooms are finished, it has that new house smell — but you can’t move in," MTA chief of external relations John McCarthy said. "That’s frustrating and that’s how this feels."
As evidence that the new station is "ready to go," as Torres-Springer said during a tour in December, the MTA noted that LIRR test trains already are running, without passengers, to and from Grand Central.
Although Lieber suggested Wednesday that work on the project is complete, the authority previously has acknowledged that some elements of construction have been delayed and would last into the first quarter of this year. MTA officials have said the leftover work — which includes painting, commissioning an escalator, and making other finishes — would not impact the commencement of LIRR service to Grand Central. It also will take a little longer to populate the many retail businesses setting up in the new station.
What’s holding up the opening of Grand Central Madison?
The main obstacle involves the station's ventilation system, and the ability of exhaust fans to clear the air in one "zone" of the new station’s concourse in the event of a fire or other incident that causes smoke to spread through Grand Central Madison, Torres-Springer has said. The air is getting mixed with that from the zone just above — in Grand Central Terminal’s dining concourse, which includes several kitchens.
"There’s one area that’s near the entrance from the existing Grand Central’s lower level, where the exhaust system was not able to suck enough air, because there were counteractive air flows that were coming from existing Grand Central," Lieber said Wednesday. "That’s literally it. And we’re addressing those engineering issues with a variety of tools.”
Until the issue is resolved, the new station cannot meet certain safety standards to open. MTA officials said they are working to separate the air flow from the two zones, and will then conduct tests to ensure the system is working properly.
What will LIRR service to Grand Central look like when it opens?
The MTA said Friday it still plans to kick off service to Grand Central with a shuttle train between Jamaica and the new station. The "Grand Central Direct," as it's being called, will run every 30 minutes during off-peak hours, and every hour during peak hours.
LIRR interim president Catherine Rinaldi has said the railroad will give riders at least three weeks' notice before launching its full service plan for East Side Access. Final schedules have not been released yet. It will include up to 24 trains an hour running into and out of Grand Central, but also fewer trains to Penn Station during the morning rush hour and the elimination of most direct service between stations on Long Island and in Brooklyn.
Didn’t the head of the MTA promise East Side Access would not be delayed again?
Yes. Upon taking over the project, following multiple delays, Lieber vowed in 2018 that the 2022 completion date was “absolutely written in stone.” Even though the MTA didn't keep that promise, Lieber has defended his decision to stick to the 2022 date well into December of last year, saying it kept pressure on contractors to work hard and helped create a culture of accountability at the MTA.
“We wouldn’t be anywhere near the end if I had not set this goal,” Lieber told Newsday in November.
On Wednesday, Lieber stood by setting the deadline.
“For years, when there were problems with East Side Access, the answer was, 'We’re going to push it back three years, four years, an untold number [of] years,' " Lieber said Wednesday. "We didn’t do that. We said we’re getting it done. And the thing is finished. And now we’re counting days and weeks and struggling through this one last issue.”
Are the delays driving up the costs of East Side Access?
So far, they have not, according to Lieber. The project's $11.13 billion budget "has ample contingency" built in to address unforeseen issues as they've come up, "So there is no additional costs that we anticipate at this time,” Lieber said.
An independent engineering firm hired by the MTA to review the project in its most recent report in May agreed that the project budget “remains sufficient to complete the work” and to address some potential safety code issues that already were on the horizon eight months ago.
If there are additional costs from the issues with the ventilation system, Lieber suggested that the MTA could look to recover them from contractors' insurance policies under provisions addressing "errors and omissions."
"If some imperfection in the engineering were to blame — not impossible — that didn’t take account of the impact of the existing Grand Central’s air flows, that will be an interesting discussion," Lieber said. "I’m not paying for extra work that is necessitated because somebody, however well-intentioned, didn’t design something perfectly.”
The other work still going on at Grand Central Madison is within the scope of existing contracts, according to the MTA.
When LIRR trains begin running to Grand Central Madison, what’s a ticket going to cost, and how long will the trip take?
Tickets will cost the same amount as a trip to Penn Station. Under the current pricing structure, a trip from Hicksville to Grand Central Terminal will cost $14 during peak hours, and $10.25 during the off-peak.
MTA officials have said travel times for Grand Central will be roughly the same as those for Penn Station — about 17 to 20 minutes to and from Jamaica, depending on how many and which stops a train makes.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
