East Side Access
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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected public transportation infrastructure. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available. |
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East Side Access is a public works project being undertaken by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, designed to bring the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) into a new East Side station to be built below and incorporated into Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
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[edit] Purpose
Access to the East Side of Manhattan has long been a dream of LIRR riders who work on the East Side but must now commute into the Long Island Rail Road's sole current Manhattan terminus at the congested Pennsylvania Station, on the West Side. A 1998 study showed that only 36% of all jobs in Midtown are within walking distance of Pennsylvania Station, while almost 70% are within walking distance of Grand Central Terminal, the other major Manhattan rail terminal. (There is some overlap, and some jobs are not within walking distance of either facility.) Direct service to the East Side would allow many riders to walk to work and allow other riders to reduce the number of subway and bus transfers they must make in order to reach their jobs, shortening and simplifying their commutes and cutting up to 40 minutes off their daily travel time. The addition of a new Manhattan terminal will also increase capacity on the LIRR as a whole.
The new LIRR East Side station under Grand Central Terminal will offer new entrances, a concourse, eight tracks on four platforms and a mid-level mezzanine. This new station would allow easier transfers for commuters travelling between Long Island, Metro-North Railroad destinations (in the Bronx, Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, and Connecticut), and the New York City Subway.
By itself, the East Side Access project should reduce congestion at Penn Station; however Metro-North is considering offering train service to the station via the old New York Central West Side Line, currently used only by Amtrak, and the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel project would significantly increase New Jersey Transit traffic between New Jersey and an expanded Penn Station.
[edit] Route and service level
Extending between Sunnyside, Queens, and Grand Central Terminal, the East Side Access project will route the LIRR from its Main Line through new track connections in Sunnyside Yard and through the lower level of the existing 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River. In Manhattan, a new tunnel will begin at the western end of the 63rd Street Tunnel at Second Avenue, curving south under Park Avenue and entering a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal.
Current plans call for 24-trains-per-hour service to Grand Central Terminal during peak morning hours, with an estimated 162,000 passenger trips to and from Grand Central on an average weekday. Connections to AirTrain JFK at Jamaica Station in Jamaica, Queens, will facilitate travel to John F. Kennedy International Airport from the East Side of Manhattan.
A new LIRR train station in Sunnyside at Queens Boulevard along the LIRR’s Main Line (into Penn Station) will provide one-stop access for area residents to Midtown Manhattan and may spur economic development and growth in Long Island City.
[edit] Current status
The East Side Access project cost has increased from $3 billion in 1998[citation needed] to US$6.3 billion in 2006.[1] Construction work is ongoing and a 2013 completion date is projected. The construction contract for a one-mile tunnel in Manhattan west and southward from the long dormant lower level of the 63rd Street rail tunnel to the new station beneath Grand Central terminal was awarded on July 13, 2006, to a joint American-Spanish venture (the American company is located in Queens, NY).[1] The total contract award is $430 million contract,[1] and will utilize two large tunnelling devices owned by the Spanish firm.
A contract to build rail infrastructure under Amtrak's Sunnyside Yard rail complex in Queens to connect the east end of the 63rd Street tunnel to the LIRR in Sunnyside, Queens, a $90 million contract, is expected in Summer 2006.[2]
Given the massive size of the project, the plan has aroused concerns and opposition. In 2005, businesses and Cardinal Edward Egan began to express concerns about the tunneling process. Egan in particular is concerned about the impact on St. Patrick's Cathedral, which faces Fifth Avenue with its back on Madison Avenue north of 50th Street. The project is proposing that an air vent be placed south of 50th Street and east of Madison Avenue, just outside the existing trainshed.[3]
[edit] Side effects
East Side Access is likely to affect commuting patterns in Manhattan and put greatly increased passenger loads on the already overcrowded IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the sole East Side subway line, as well as on surface bus routes on the East Side. The project might act as a catalyst for the long-delayed Second Avenue Line along the far East Side of Manhattan to relieve north/south commuting pressure emanating from Grand Central Terminal.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c MTA Takes Major Step Towards Completing East Side Access Plan, NY1, July 12, 2006
- ^ New York's Subway System Finally Starting Major Expansion, newyork.construction.com, May 2006 issue
- ^ East Side Access Draws Opponents, New York Sun, February 10, 2005
