LIRR service to Grand Central Terminal starts Wednesday as MTA completes decades-long project
It’s all aboard Wednesday for Long Island Rail Road trains to Grand Central Terminal.
After years of delay and cost overruns — capped by ventilation system problems that added a final agonizing hurdle to the project — the MTA’s $12.7 billion Grand Central Madison project is finally ready for passengers.
The first LIRR train to Grand Central will leave Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday and arrive at Grand Central at 11:07 a.m., the MTA announced.
For at least the following three weeks, service will be limited to shuttle trains between Jamaica and Grand Central.
The shuttle trains will run from 6:15 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends. Weekday service will run every half-hour during off-peak times and every hour during peak times.
That means if you want to try the service during your morning or evening commute, you’ll only have one chance per hour for trains that arrive at Grand Central between 6:30 a.m. and 10 a.m and depart from Grand Central between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
At other times of the day, and during weekends, trains will run every half hour.
On weekdays, 11 Jamaica-bound trains and 12 Grand Central-bound trains will stop in Queens, at Woodside, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. The rest of the trains will run express between Jamaica and Grand Central.
On weekends, half the trains will make the three Queens stops, and half will run express.
The MTA says riders should check schedules on the LIRR Train Time app or the MTA.info website.
Here’s a tip for Long Islanders eager to try out the service: Tickets to and from Long Island points and Penn Station will be honored on the Jamaica-Grand Central shuttle since Grand Central and Penn Station are in the same fare zone, the MTA says.
After the initial trial period — which the MTA cautions could last longer than three weeks — the Jamaica shuttles will be replaced with regular LIRR service.
The MTA had planned to start the service in December but problems with a vent fan in December added a final delay to the decades-long project.
Planning began for the project during the administration of Gov. George Pataki in the 1990s. At the time, MTA planners expected the project would cost $2.8 billion and take less than a decade to build.
Construction began on the project in 2008. The new LIRR platforms extend from E. 43rd St. to E 48th St. in gigantic caverns 175 feet below street level.
When full service finally begins, LIRR officials expect to run an additional 274 trains on weekdays, an increase of 41%. That will include 44 new morning rush hour trains to Penn Station and Grand Central, giving Long Island commuters 120 morning trains into Manhattan, up 58% from the current 76 trains.
