East Side Access
East Side Access is a public works project in New York City that extended the Long Island Rail Road two miles from its Main Line in Queens to the new Grand Central Madison station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's East Side. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority project was originally scheduled to open in 2009 but was delayed by more than a decade. The new station and tunnels opened with limited service to Jamaica station in Queens on January 25, 2023, before full service began the following month, on February 27. The estimated cost of the project rose over threefold from to as of 2018, making it one of the world's most expensive underground rail-construction projects.
The new LIRR terminal contains eight tracks and four platforms in a two-level station below street level. It was built in conjunction with several other LIRR expansion projects, including the construction of a third track along the Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville. The project was intended to remove or reduce the need for subway transfers for a large number of riders with jobs on the east side of Manhattan. Previously, the only Manhattan stop for trains from Long Island was Penn Station, on the west side of the island.
East Side Access was based on transit plans from the 1950s, though an LIRR terminal on Manhattan's East Side was first proposed in 1963. The planned LIRR line was included in the 1968 Program for Action of transit improvements in the New York City area. Lack of funds prevented the construction of any part of the connection other than the 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River. Plans for the LIRR connection were revived in the late 1990s. The project received federal funding in 2006, and construction began the following year. The tunnels on the Manhattan side were dug from 2007 to 2011, and the connecting tunnels on the Queens side were completed in 2012. Afterward, work began on other facilities related to the line, such as new platforms at Grand Central, ventilation and ancillary buildings, communication and utility systems, and supporting rail infrastructure in Queens. The project's completion was delayed several times during construction.
History
Origins
The East Side Access project was based on regional planning proposals that were first brought up in the 1950s. In March 1954, the New York City Transit Authority issued a $658 million construction program. The proposal included a tunnel for the Second Avenue Subway, which would cross the East River between 76th Street in Manhattan and Astoria in Queens before continuing onto the Long Island Rail Road 's Main Line in Queens. The 76th Street tunnel proposal resurfaced in 1963, though the location of the tunnel was changed several times thereafter. In 1965, the NYCTA finally decided to build the subway tunnel at 63rd Street.The first proposals to bring LIRR service to a terminal in eastern Midtown Manhattan arose in 1963. To facilitate planning for this terminal, a third track was added to the plans for the 63rd Street subway tunnel in April 1966. The track would serve LIRR trains to east Midtown, alleviating train traffic into Penn Station on Manhattan's west side while integrating the LIRR with the subway. A fourth track was added to the plans in August 1966 after it was determined that LIRR trains would be too large to run on subway tracks. This amendment increased the number of LIRR tracks to two, and provided segregated tracks for the LIRR and the subway.
In February 1968, the NYCTA's parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, released the Program for Action, which proposed numerous improvements to subway, railway, and airport service in the New York metropolitan area. The plan included a new LIRR terminal at a proposed Metropolitan Transportation Center at Third Avenue and 48th Street in East Midtown. It also included connections to Grand Central Terminal, with a new northern entrance leading to the center, and the Second Avenue Subway, among other transit services. The new LIRR line was to branch off from existing lines in Sunnyside, Queens, and enter Manhattan using the new two-level 63rd Street Tunnel. The upper level was to be used by the New York City Subway's 63rd Street lines and the lower level was to be used by the LIRR. According to renderings of the transportation center, the mezzanine would be placed above four island platforms and eight tracks, which would be split evenly across two levels, similar to the present terminal under Grand Central.
Construction on the project began in 1969. Four prefabricated sections of the 63rd Street Tunnel were constructed under the East River, the first of which was delivered in May 1971. That first section was lowered into place on August 29, 1971, and the last section was lowered on March 14, 1972. The double-deck, tunnel under the East River was "holed through" on October 10, 1972, with the separate sections of tunnels being connected. The estimated cost of the project was $341 million, and the MTA applied for $227 million in Federal funds.
Plans to build the Manhattan terminal in the Turtle Bay neighborhood were opposed by residents who feared it would change the neighborhood and bring traffic congestion; they suggested it be built at Grand Central instead. MTA officials countered that there were too many rail lines at Grand Central, and that adding the LIRR would further strain the Lexington Avenue Line. If it were on Third Avenue, passengers would have been more inclined to use the Second Avenue Subway, which was partially under construction at the time. On April 16, 1973, a Federal directive directed New York State to consider expanding and modernizing Grand Central before building the new terminal under Third Avenue.
Preliminary planning for the Metropolitan Transportation Center had been completed by January 1975. Due to continued opposition to the Transportation Center, a "Grand Central Alternative" was published in September 1976. It called for the LIRR to use Grand Central Terminal's lower level instead. In 1977, the MTA's board of directors voted to use Grand Central as the terminal for the proposed LIRR route.
Plans stalled
Due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, the LIRR project was canceled long before the tunnel was completed. The New York Times noted that the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel was still under construction by 1976, even though "officials knew that the tunnel would never be used." Richard Ravitch, the MTA chairman, said that to stop the work was impossible or so costly as to make it impractical subsequent to the construction of the subway portion." The lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel was completed along with the upper subway level. The western end of the tunnel lay dormant under Second Avenue at 63rd Street for three decades. By the time that construction on the LIRR tunnel level stopped, the tunnel was built for a distance of. The 8,600-foot "tunnel to nowhere" was completed "largely for structural reasons – to support the subway tunnel above."The 63rd Street subway line and LIRR tunnel were completed as far as 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens, with the subway level of the tunnel opening in 1989. The LIRR tunnel remained unused beneath the subway tracks. In 1994, work began to extend the 63rd Street subway tunnel east to connect to the Queens Boulevard subway line; the LIRR tunnel was also extended east, under 41st Avenue in Queens to the west side of Northern Boulevard in Queens. The subway connector was opened to full-time F train service in December 2001.
Plans revived
Plans were made in 1995 to bring LIRR service to East Midtown, although MTA officials declared that the LIRR East Side connection would not be completed within the next generation. In 1997, U.S. Senator Al D'Amato started asking for federal money to connect the LIRR to Grand Central. New York Governor George Pataki had previously proposed completing the project, but D'Amato's support increased the likelihood that construction would actually begin. At the time, if everything went favorably, the LIRR link could open by 2010. By that time, the LIRR was the busiest commuter railroad in the United States, with an average of 269,400 passengers each weekday in 1999. As of 1998, there were almost 1.77 million jobs in Manhattan, including an increasing number of white-collar "office" jobs in East Midtown. Penn Station on the West Side was operating at capacity due to a complex track interlocking and limited capacity in the East River Tunnels.In 1999, the MTA proposed a $17 billion five-year capital budget. This budget included a $1.6 billion LIRR connection to Grand Central, as well as several subway extensions. The project's final environmental impact assessment was released in March 2001. The FEIS reviewed two key options for bringing LIRR service to Grand Central. The first option was to connect the tunnels to the existing lower level at Grand Central, while the second option was to build an entirely new station underneath it. The MTA ultimately recommended the second option because it was cheaper and less disruptive to Metro-North service. After reviewing the FEIS for two months, the Federal Transit Administration gave the project a favorable "Record of Decision"—i.e., approved it.
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the MTA said it would accelerate the construction of East Side Access. LIRR president Kenneth J. Bauer said, "The incident of September 11 shows the importance of East Side Access to a greater degree. If something happened at the East River tunnel, you wouldn't be able to run trains to Penn Station." The MTA and Governor Pataki supported East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway, both of which involved building new railroad infrastructure on the East Side. In 2002, Congress allocated $132 million for infrastructure projects in New York State, including $14.7 million for East Side Access. A final design for the project was approved in 2002, and the first properties for it were acquired in 2003.
In 2004, some business owners in Midtown announced their opposition to a proposed 16-story ventilation building at 50th Street east of Madison Avenue. They said that the building would cause pollution and that it could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Catholic Archbishop Cardinal Edward Egan of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York worried about the effect on St. Patrick's Cathedral, which faced Fifth Avenue with its back on Madison Avenue north of 50th Street. At first, MTA officials held fast to their plans, but after continued opposition, they reduced the size of the building and moved the structure's cooling towers.