Outta Space

Manhattan’s two major rail terminals – Grand Central Terminal (GCT) and Penn Station serve a half million passengers each day. GCT, recently refurbished with a $150 million investment to bring the terminal back to its earlier grandeur, is used exclusively by Metro North, an operating arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Plans are underway to connect the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to GCT by 2009, a project that would use the existing tunnel at 63rd Street under the East River and give some 70,000 riders a day much needed access to the East Side. Of more immediate benefit to current Metro North riders is the $110 million North End Access Project, whose opening is imminent. It will add to GCT’s convenience for riders destined for midtown locations north of the terminal.

Penn Station is used by three railroad entities, the LIRR, NJ TRANSIT (NJT), and Amtrak, the inter-city rail passenger carrier. And a fourth railroad using Penn Station is a possibility; Metro North is currently examining the feasibility of bringing some of its service into Penn Station to offer its constituents direct access to the west side of midtown Manhattan. Penn Station itself is undergoing significant changes, with Amtrak moving its passenger handling operations to the Farley Post Office building across Eighth Avenue, in an attempt to capture some of the lost magic of the original Penn Station, razed in a fit of urban vandalism some forty years ago.