NEW YORK — Full Long Island Rail Road service to Grand Central Madison — and the sweeping revision of the LIRR schedule that will accompany that move — will begin Monday, Feb. 27, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday.
“Faster, more convenient travel that brings Long Island closer to the heart of the City will be a major shot in the arm for the local economy and the effort to get people back to offices, theaters, and shopping,” said MTA CEO Janno Lieber.
The new schedule will see the LIRR added 271 trains on weekdays for a total of 936 trains per day, with 296 of those to or from the new station beneath Grand Central Terminal. The additional trains will represent a 41% increase over the 665 trains currently operating on weekdays.
“This is the biggest service increase in LIRR history,” Catherine Rinaldi, interim president of the Long Island Rail Road and president of Metro-North Railroad, said in a press release. “Long Islanders will benefit from a combination of Grand Central Madison service, the new LIRR Main Line third track and a second NYC terminal that links to the east side. The LIRR has created a new schedule with robust reverse commute service that links the entire region to Long Island’s homes, jobs, entertainment and education.”
Service to Grand Central Madison began Jan. 25 [see “Grand Central Madison, terminal for MTA’s East Side Access, debuts,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 25, 2023] but is currently limited to shuttle trains between the new station and the Jamaica station in Queens. Under the new schedule, all 11 LIRR branches will offer service to both Grand Central Madison and Penn Station, although transfers will be needed in some cases. Branch-by-branch service details are available here; new schedules are available here.
I always wondered why a whole new sub-sub level had to be built.
Couldn’t the GCT lower level handle the LIRR traffic?
There is complete analysis of trains per branch, terminals , peak, off peak, and reverse commute and etc completely changing service patterns in Railway Age.
3rd paragraph, “to for from…”. Sounds like someone’s been reading their fee-fi-fo-fum story!
There’d better be a drop in trains to Penn Station! If a Metro North line to Penn is to open up (via Hell Gate bridge) as planned, and that station stays as busy as it now is, there’ll be problems.
Can someone indicate how many trains currently serve Penn Station on a weekday, and how many will serve afterward Feb 27. My understanding is that there would be a significant drop in trains to Penn Station freeing up capacity for Metro North trains.