The LIRR’s East Side Access project will do more than provide Long Islanders access to Grand Central Terminal. By freeing up space at Penn Station, the project will allow Metro-North to realize a long-held goal of running trains to Penn, additional parts of the Bronx, and the West Side of Manhattan. With the LIRR project inching closer to completion, Metro-North announced this week that it has begun what should be the final environmental study of that project.
Some Hudson Line trains would travel over Amtrak’s Empire Line (in green on the map), stopping at new stations at West 125th St. and the vicinity of W. 59th St. Some New Haven Line trains would run over Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line (in red) and stop in Co-op City, Parkchester, and Hunts Point in the Bronx. Notably, the Hunts Point station would help anchor new development in the Sheridan Expressway footprint if the highway is torn down.
Metro-North began studying the possibility of Penn access in 1999, narrowing down more than twenty alternatives to four by 2002. The agency is now studying only the one described above, and will finalize details like station locations and planned service. Because the project uses existing tracks and has few impacts, Metro-North does not need to complete a complex Environmental Impact Statement and plans to wrap up its study by 2011.
East Side Access is currently scheduled to open in 2016. Metro-North should plan on finishing design and construction before then, so it can roll out service to Penn Station right after the East Side Access ribbon is cut.
It would be a shame if the MN connection to Penn Station was built without adding stations in Upper Manhattan, specifically Inwood and Washington Heights. These neighborhoods have pretty long subway commutes and would really benefit from commuter rail service – it would be in effect a “super-express” line into Penn and cut perhaps 20 minutes off of the trip downtown.
@James – Agreed, unfortunately the connection from the neighborhoods up on the ridge, down to the tracks at river level would be pretty tough to do. The most likely connection would be at Dyckman Street in Inwood, but that location is somewhat removed from the neighborhood and would likely have to rely on bus access. An ideal station from an intermodal perspective would provide a connection to the GW Bridge Bus Terminal. Problem is that the tracks are almost 1,800 ft to the west and 200 ft below the existing bus terminal.
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The tracks run west of the highway in Washington Heights and Inwood. So any access to the bus terminal, 181st St, or 165th St would require a highway crossing as well. Dyckman St could work, however, but the tracks are a 10-minute walk west from the A train, which only takes 34 minutes to Penn.
What this plan really needs most is a stop in Sunnyside. This will allow passengers going to Queens and Brooklyn to no longer have to go into Manhattan at all.
As is, the New Haven line to Sunnyside is a 3 train affair in the rain or two with a several block walk when its nice outside.
The tracks in Queens go right over both the Ditmars stop on the N, and the Northern Blvd. on the R, V & G (@ Broadway). Though the right of way is only 2 tracks wide through Queens, and 4 through the Bronx – perhaps the reason the MTA exclude these options is that Amtrak trains would have to continue to run “express” to New Rochelle.
Widening to 4 tracks & platforms at Northern Blvd. looks like it would require eminent domain and the loss of several buildings or portions thereof – though few appear to be residential. Even so, it seems like a good idea for a station location and a good connection for all of Queens.
While one can say that the ride between Dyckman and 34th only takes 34 minutes, my experience over the years is quite variable. I would allow at least an hour to get from my apartment on Cabrini and 187th to 34th/Penn Station using the 181st street A station (entering from the elevator between 183rd and 184th). If there was any major walking from Penn Station add the appropriate time.
Sadly, despite the long express run from 59th to 125th express service into Washington Hgts/Inwood and into the Bronx is lacking.
I agree with Kev, the stops in Queens seem intuitive. I assume the line is elevated and a new station would not be as simple as a new station at grade. Maybe in the future, with proper demand/advocacy…
While LIRR and Metro-North are talking about improvements, there are roughly 2 million people in Brooklyn and Staten Island with no commuter train service whatsoever. The long and arduous trek to JFK or Coney Island from points north (with tourism from NJ suffering as well due to the lack of accessibility) or the rest of the city from points south sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the relatively good connectivity in the Bronx, Manhattan, and much of Queens. The bedroom communities of Brooklyn are all but forgotten when it comes to either transportation or livability issues (parks, etc).
The Astoria station would cost too much to build I spoke to the engine4er in charge of the project and he explained to me why we had quite a long discussion and I even sent him a map I had gotton of the stations in the Bronx on the old New Haven River line Two of the three stations are at locations that had stations in the past The only new station in the East Bronx is Coop City The stations on the Empire corridor were selected because they would be easy to build and in areas that would use them The Hunts Point station would serve reverse commuters to Westchester and Connecticut
I do not understand why I have never seen a discussion of the possibility of providing Metro-North riders access to and from the upper east side by converting the existing emergency exit at 59th St. in the Park Ave.tunnel into a station. Also, would it not be possible to provide access for LIRR riders to the east side by widening a short section of the LIRR tunnel at Park Ave. to accommodate a station?
I guess it depends on what you consider a “long held goal”…The New Haven used to run to PSNY. Several stations in the Bronx were closed a few decades ago, now we will open some new ones. It seems very cyclical.
Lionel: the 59 St exit was a station, one of several, in the Park Ave tunnel. They were closed just a few years after opening. Do you really want to cut capacity that much in the tunnel when the Lex subway gives a more versatile, lower fare, alternative? Things will improve markedly when the first phase of 2nd Ave opens (a mere decade away!) – that will give a one seat ride to Times Square and the west side, which should draw plenty of people off the Lex.
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