NEW YORK, NY – Long Island Rail Road service to Grand Central Madison officially began on Jan. 25, with an inaugural train arriving just after 11 a.m.
The first train to Grand Central Madison departed from Jamaica, Queens at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday and traveled express to the new 700,000-square-foot terminal in Midtown.
Gov. Kathy Hochul along with MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber were on board the inaugural trip and, at a press conference following the ride, called it a “gift to New Yorkers”. “For our commuters, the people we represent, the ones we care the most about, we are giving them something that’s precious: we’re giving them time back in their lives”, Hochul said.
The MTA originally hoped to open the station in 2011, and then December 2022. Most recently, the project was delayed due to ventilation fans, which were fixed this week, allowing the station to open safely to the public.
The station stretches from 42nd to 47th streets, 17 stories underground along Madison Avenue. It is the first Long Island Rail Road extension in 112 years, since service began to Penn Station on September 8, 1910
According to an MTA press release, for at least three weeks, LIRR will operate limited shuttle service between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison so customers can acquaint themselves with the new terminal as existing schedules continue. This will be followed by LIRR initiating full service from Long Island to Grand Central, per schedules that will be posted on new.mta.info/GrandCentralMadison and in the TrainTime app.
During this initial period, the LIRR has customer ambassadors on the Grand Central Madison concourse to greet customers and offer information about the new space. LIRR customers to Grand Central Madison can use their Penn Station tickets, as Penn Station and Grand Central Madison are in the same fare zone.
Grand Central Madison doubles LIRR capacity into Manhattan. In conjunction with the completion of a third track on the LIRR Main Line, the new terminal enables reverse commuting options that were not previously possible. For LIRR customers who work on the east side of Manhattan, this new terminal is expected to save 40 minutes a day of commute time round trip.
The Grand Central Madison systemwide timetables are expected to include 274 more trains each weekday than currently operate, a historic 41 percent service increase made possible in part by the completion on October 3 of a new 9.8-mile Main Line third between Floral Park and Hicksville.
Grand Central Madison and Main Line Third Track are part of an unprecedented $17.7 billion investment to transform and modernize the Long Island Rail Road with 100 projects throughout the system including construction of a more spacious LIRR Concourse at Penn Station with a new entrance at 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, renewal and upgrading of 36 stations and 17 bridges, elimination of eight at-grade railroad crossings, activation of the Positive Train Control safety system, installation of 13 miles of second track between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma, upgrades to 15 electrical substations, parking capacity increases, and yard expansions.
