page_title: History of Grand Central Terminal
section_title: Long Island Rail Road access
hierarchical_section_title: History of Grand Central Terminal / 21st century / Long Island Rail Road access
caption_attribution_description: Progress on the Grand Central Terminal side of the East Side Access Project as of January 13, 2014. Photo: MTA Capital Construction / Rehema Trimiew
context_page_description: Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same site. The current structure was built by and named for the New York Central Railroad, though it also served New York Central's successors as well as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
  Grand Central Terminal arose from a need to build a central station for all three terminals in present-day Midtown Manhattan. The magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt bought the Hudson River and New York Central Railroads in 1867, and created Grand Central Depot for the Hudson River, New York Central, and New Haven railroads in 1871. Due to rapid growth, the depot was reconstructed and renamed Grand Central Station by 1900. The current structure, designed by the firms Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, was built after a 1902 crash between two steam trains had prompted a study of the feasibility of electric trains. The building's construction started in 1903 and it was opened on February 2, 1913.
context_section_description: The East Side Access project, underway since 2007, is slated to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into a new station beneath the terminal starting in 2022. LIRR trains will reach Grand Central from Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens, via the existing 63rd Street Tunnel and new tunnels under construction on both the Manhattan and Queens sides. LIRR trains will arrive and depart from a bi-level, eight-track tunnel with four platforms that will sit more than 140 feet (43 m) below Park Avenue and more than 90 feet (27 m) below the Metro-North tracks. Reaching the street from the lowest new level, more than 175 feet (53 m) deep, will take about 10 minutes. A new 350,000-square-foot retail and dining concourse will initially be accessed via stairwells, 22 elevators, and 47 escalators connecting to Grand Central's existing food court. The MTA plans to build and open new entrances at 45th, 46th, and 48th streets.
  The first proposals for Long Island Rail Road trains entering the east side of Manhattan date to 1963. In 1968, the 63rd Street Tunnel and a new "Metropolitan Transportation Center" at 48th Street and Third Avenue were proposed for the LIRR as part of the Program for Action. After people living near the proposed transportation center objected, the MTA's board of directors voted to use Grand Central as the terminal for the proposed LIRR route in 1977. However, due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, the LIRR project was postponed indefinitely before the 63rd Street Tunnel could be completed.
  The East Side Access project was restarted after a study in the 1990s that showed that more than half of LIRR riders work closer to Grand Central than to the current terminus at Penn Station. Cost estimates jumped from $4.4 billion in 2004, to $6.4 billion in 2006, then to $11.1 billion. The new stations and tunnels are to begin service in December 2022.
caption: East Side Access progress in 2014
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