What you should know
- Four new Metro-North rail stations are planned for the Bronx as work resumes on the Penn Station access project, which was suspended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and funding uncertainty for the MTA, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
- The project will bring four fully accessible Metro-North stations to Hunts Point, Parkchester, Morris Park and Co-Op City.
- The trip from Co-Op City to Penn Station, currently 75 minutes, will be reduced to 25 minutes. Meanwhile, the daily commute from Hunts Point to Penn Station, currently 45 minutes, will be shortened to 16 minutes.
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NEW YORK – Four new Metro-North rail stations are planned for the Bronx as work resumes on the Penn Station access project, which was suspended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty in funding for the MTA, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
“As vaccination rates rise and COVID-19 declines, it is time to refocus our efforts on the critical infrastructure projects we need to deliver for New York’s future and economic recovery from the pandemic,” Cuomo said in a statement. .
The project will bring four fully accessible Metro-North stations to the Bronx, giving them access to Penn Station. These stations will be located at:
- Hunts Point
- Parkchester
- Morris Park
- Co-Op City
The trains that stop at these future stations will serve an extension of the New Haven line, offering train options in the East Bronx to downtown Manhattan, as well as Westchester County and Connecticut.
The trip from Co-Op City to Penn Station, currently 75 minutes, will be reduced to 25 minutes. Meanwhile, the daily commute from Hunts Point to Penn Station, currently 45 minutes, will be shortened to 16 minutes.
“Connecting Metro-North to Penn Station has long been an important next step, not only for New York City’s economic growth and development, but also for protecting our environment and providing more equitable access to transit in This reinitiated the selection process for a company to build four new stations will expand access to transit in the Bronx and help create a new corridor between Manhattan and the Mid-Hudson region, ”continued Cuomo in his statement. .
Metro-North trains will use a rail line owned by Amtrak and used by its Northeast Corridor trains. This project will improve the line and update its infrastructure.
The project is one of many efforts to make Metro-North service more attractive and useful in the Bronx, according to the state. The last Metro-North station to be built where there hadn’t been one before was also in The Bronx, on Yankees-E. 153rd Street. That station opened in 2009.
The next step will be to choose a company to design and build the new stations and make road improvements in The Bronx. As part of that process, the public will be able to review project documents online and in person in The Bronx, including the Morris Park Community Association and the Bronx Jewish Community Council.
“By rebuilding this underused Amtrak rail line to accommodate new Metro-North service, this project will provide East Bronx residents with better access to jobs, education and a full range of opportunities,” said Janno Lieber, President of Construction. and development of the MTA, in a statement.
Catherine Rinaldi, president of the MTA Metro-North Railroad, shared similar sentiments, calling the project “exciting” and “transformative.”
“This is an exciting project that will be transformative for Metro-North as well as the Bronx,” said Rinaldi. “We look forward to doing everything we can to support this project to bring Metro-North service to an entirely new part of the Bronx and provide customers of our historically busiest New Haven line with a choice of new destinations as they plan. your trip “.
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