LIRR Grand Central Madison service to begin on Wednesday
Service into Grand Central Madison will begin on a limited basis from Jamaica. Credit: Craig Ruttle
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.
Service will commence with the “Grand Central Direct”— a shuttle that will operate between the new station and Jamaica. LIRR officials have said trains will run every 30 minutes during middays and weekends, and every 60 minutes during peak hours.
Trains will operate between 6:15 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on weekends. Tickets will cost the same as those to and from Penn Station, and customers can use Penn tickets for travel to Grand Central.
The shuttle service will be in place for at least three weeks, “so customers can acquaint themselves with the new terminal as existing schedules continue,” the railroad said.
The railroad will have “customer service ambassadors” at Grand Central to help direct riders beginning Wednesday.
The MTA — the LIRR’s parent organization — had promised for years that the new station would open in 2022, but late last month said an issue with the ventilation system would delay the opening to this year.
The project, first championed by former Sen. Al D’Amato a quarter-century ago, aims to reduce travel times for commuters working on Manhattan’s East Side, and also give the LIRR much-needed redundancy by providing a second route onto and off of Long Island.
In an interview with News 12 Sunday, LIRR President Catherine Rinaldi called the project “a revolutionary change for the Long Island Rail Road.”
“People have been riding the railroad the same way for a long, long time now. This is going to provide a lot of options with respect to how people travel,” Rinaldi said.
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.
