Beginning Monday, the new Grand Central Madison Terminal provides full Long Island Railroad service to the east side of the city. Something that users living in Queens and Long Island had been waiting for for many years.
“Usually, it takes me about an hour and it cut my time to almost 30 minutes,” said Helen Fernández. “I go to the Upper East Side, to 96th Street, I’m going to take the 6. And I go to the hospital, I’m a doctor and very its important to arrive on time. I have patients who are waiting for me.”
Fernández.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that nearly 300 trains will be moving through Grand Central Madison Terminal every day of the year, which equates to a 41 percent increase in service.
This is the first major new rail terminal to open in the country in 67 years and the first extension of the LIRR in 112 years, since service to Penn Station began in 1910.
Some users claim to see a difference in their travel time:
“An hour, an hour and 10. Now I miss him,” said Luis Carro.
-How much?
“40 minutes”.
“I had to come to Penn Station, at 34, then take the 1, then the S and come here and today there is only one, only one road,” said Fidel Oroman.
Others, however, were more skeptical:
“I am going to see the difference and all that has to be done to get here. Look now, the step is not working”, said Pedro Rosario.
“I was used to Penn Station, here it is a little like… it’s big, it’s… It’s easy to get lost,” said Fernando Calle. “It’s good to have more options, hopefully it will be beneficial for everyone.”
The new service also means fewer morning trains to Penn Station, so some riders will have to make more transfers.
Passengers United, a public transit advocacy organization, argues that Long Island stations such as Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson experience service gaps, especially in the morning rush hour. This is because there are not enough trains that travel from there to Grand Central and Penn Station.
For its part, the MTA ensures that during peak hours there will be a LIRR train traveling to Penn Station or Grand Central every 3 to 6 minutes.
The new terminal is quite spacious and users are learning the new schedules and also how to navigate the system through maps.
