Next Stop: Grand Central Madison!

This week, Grand Central Madison-- the largest expansion of Grand Central since this iteration of the complex opened in 1913-- had its official/soft opening. It was the culmination of discussions begun in 1963 of bringing the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) into the east side of Manhattan. In the LIRR's long history, its one and only stop in Manhattan has been Penn Station on the west side. Finally breaking ground in 2001-- after decades of all talk and no action-- the "East Side Access" project was then projected to bring an additional 250,000 commuters a day into Grand Central (no projections today, given changing post-pandemic work patterns). The final cost for the project ended up around a whopping $12 billion.

Many have read that this new hub is deep underneath the original Grand Central complex. How far? I filmed this video to explore!

In the first section (time: 0:00): I show how long it takes to get from the platforms (where you'd disembark the train) up to Grand Central's original concourse, and then out to 42nd St. It took right around 11 minutes, so feel free to scroll through the video at whatever pace you prefer.

Next section (time: 11:49) : What is it like to transfer from Metro-North to the LIRR (or vice versa) at Grand Central? Pretty simple, and without need to hustle back up to the landmark Main Concourse.

Third section (time: 13:51): How about transferring from the subway at Grand Central to the LIRR concourse? Also pretty simple.