NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority still hasn’t announced when service will begin to Grand Central Madison, its new station beneath Grand Central Terminal that will complete the long-awaited Long Island Rail Road East Side Access project.
On Monday, however, the MTA did say how that service will start.
Initially, the LIRR will operate a shuttle service between Grand Central Madison and its Jamaica station in Queens, in addition to continuing the current full schedule of trains to Penn Station. This “Grand Central Direct” service will continue until the LIRR shifts from its existing timetables to the draft schedules, released in June, covering full service to Grand Central Madison, which call for an overall increase of 274 trains each weekday. At that point, 45% of New York trains will originate or terminate at Grand Central Madison, while 55% will still serve Penn Station.
The MTA said it will provide at least three weeks’ notice before the new full schedules go into effect, pushing the beginning of regular service into 2023. The MTA has long said service to the new station would begin this year; operations to and from Jamiaca will begin “when facility systems testing is complete,” the agency said.
The trains to and from Jamaica will operate hourly during peak weekday commute periods, and every half hour middays and on weekends.
“It isn’t every day that customers get access to a world-class new train terminal, so we wanted to open up the opportunity to see the space weeks in advance of the full-scale new service going into effect,” Catherine Rinaldi, interim LIRR president and Metro-North president, said in a press release. “Customers who are curious about the new terminal will be able to try it out, and we hope anyone who wants to will come take a look at the impressive new space.”
The MTA also announced that, with the introduction of LIRR service to Grand Central, it will introduce a “Combo Ticket” — a single ticket allowing travel on both the LIRR and Metro North. That ticket will include the regular fare from the point of origin to Grand Central, plus a flat fee of $8 to any destination on the other railroad.
Grand Central Madison will be the first major new downtown rail terminal to open in the U.S. in 67 years, the MTA says, and will mark the first extension of the LIRR since it began service to Penn Station in 1910.
All these years and all this money, the new tunnels and station will barely be used.
After spending months lying to the riding public about the start date of full LIRR service to Grand Central, the MTA has chosen to pull a switcheroo just days before the anticipated date. I suppose that Port Washington-branch customers, who do not have the option of changing at Jamaica, will not even initially be able to change at Woodside to try out the new service. What a marketing fiasco! Just wait until full service actually begins, and customers realize that, with all service stopping at Jamaica and no more guaranteed connections to Brooklyn, most NYP and Brooklyn trips will actually take longer.
Can someone share how many new miles of trackage will go into service once the shuttle service starts?
SEPTA’s Jefferson Station (formerly Market East) opened on November 10, 1984. It’s on the Center City Connection which connects the former PRR lines with the former Reading lines. All of SEPTA’s Regional Rail lines serve the station except the 6 daily trains of the Cynwyd Line.
Perhaps it’s not considered a terminal because all the tracks run through.
See for yourself how many trains are schedulled:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedules.septa.org/current/GLN.pdf
The trains to and from Jamaica will operate hourly during peak weekday commute periods, and every half hour middays and on weekends.
Those times seem backwards.
Does this statement make sense?
This is excellent.
There is one really big, fairly easy to do thing that has long needed to be done.
THROUGH TICKETING with Amtrak and all the commuter agencies in the US.
MBTA, MN, LIRR, SEPTA, MARC and VRE for starters. Then add others. Then include city transit schedules. Pay using app in phone.
Want an Islip to Downingtown ticket? Quantico to Beacon? Plan you trip and buy you ticket in one app/website.
The Swiss do this. Just contract with them to add your schedules and fares and connection info into their machinery and put a shiny USA label on the front end.
This is a cut and paste from the above news wire.
The trains to and from Jamaica will operate hourly during peak weekday commute periods, and every half hour middays and on weekends.
Does the above make sense? Hour peak and half hour otherwise/
Hey whats another year! when you have been waiting 25?!