New Grand Central Madison, Largest Rail Terminal Built in U.S. in Decades, Opens Fully to Passenger Traffic
This famed opal glass clock above the Information Booth at Grand Central
Attention, Passengers: Rail service to the East Side of Manhattan has arrived.
The largest passenger rail terminal to have been built in the United States since the 1950s opened to full Long Island Rail Road service on Monday, after a dress rehearsal period of several weeks.
Dubbed “Grand Central Madison,” the 700,000-square-foot (65,000-square-meter) transportation hub is festooned with permanent art installations and numerous shops and restaurants – most not yet occupied – and sits below the historic Grand Central Terminal. It will serve all 11 lines of the Long Island Rail Road.
Among the artwork are five large glass mosaics on natural themes by the artist Kiki Smith. The Madison Concourse level features the piece River Light, an 80-foot-long (24-meter-long) abstract, largely blue-and-white depiction of sunshine on the East River.
The new transportation hub has entrances from Grand Central Terminal’s Dining Concourse and Biltmore Room. In addition, there are entrances to the station at 45th, 46th, and 48th streets.
The new train station, which took 14 years to complete, will bring Long Island Rail Road trains into a new concourse situated below Grand Central Terminal. It will provide access to all 11 branches of the LIRR through a new East River tunnel that terminates below the original Grand Central Terminal.
Grand Central Madison offers 120,000 square feet (11,000 square meters) of space for passengers and 25,000 square feet (2,300 square meters) of retail space, the latter dubbed the Madison Concourse. The concourse features a ticket office, ticketed passenger waiting area, nursing room, and customer service office. There are 22 elevators and 47 escalators in the station; the escalator count actually exceeds the number of escalators in the remainder of the LIRR system and one of the escalators is the longest within the borders of New York City. Reaching the street from the lowest new level, more than 175’ (53 m) deep, is estimated to take about ten minutes.
All LIRR service has terminated on Manhattan’s West Side at Penn Station since 1910. The new terminal is intended to relieve congestion at Penn Station and allow travelers from Long Island to connect to Metro North trains that go to Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, and Orange counties as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.
The first proposals for Long Island Rail Road trains entering the east side of Manhattan date back to 1963 and the idea was floated multiple times before it was finally met with approval in the 1990s.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
