When the project is completed in 2016, the Long Island...

When the project is completed in 2016, the Long Island Rail Road will offer service to either Grand Central or Penn Station. (Feb. 8, 2011) Credit: Craig Ruttle

New York City transit officials are beginning a new phase of a tunneling project to connect Long Island to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority held a ceremony Friday dedicating two tunnel boring machines that will create four tunnels under Queens.

The tunnels will be completed in October 2012 and will form one link of the so-called East Side Access project. When the project is completed in 2016, the Long Island Rail Road will offer service to either Grand Central or Penn Station.

All LIRR trains into Manhattan currently travel to Penn Station on the West Side. Long Islanders who work on the East Side have to take the subway and double back to get to their destinations.  

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