New York City’s East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Rail Road services into Grand Central Terminal and will be finished in December 2022, will receive a follow-up project. That project is Penn Station Access, which will bring Metro-North Railroad services into Penn Station. Together, the two rail projects will help connect both of New York’s long-disconnected rail terminals.
Rail services form the backbone of New York’s transit network. Besides the subway, commuter (or regional) rail lines on the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and New Jersey Transit Rail connect suburban New Yorkers into Manhattan for work. Unfortunately, due to the legacy of how these lines were constructed, they currently terminate in two separate, disjointed terminals.
New Jersey Transit trains, which serve New Jersey suburbs, use Penn Station on 34th Street on the west side of Midtown Manhattan. Penn Station is also used by Amtrak trains and Long Island Rail Road trains, which serve New York’s suburbs on Long Island.
Metro-North Railroad trains, on the other hand, use Grand Central Terminal on 42nd Street, on the East Side of Midtown. These trains, as the name suggests, serve the suburbs of New York north of the city, stretching as far as New Haven, Conn. As trains on either network serve the New York terminals exclusively, transferring between trains that serve either terminal requires a subway ride with one transfer.
No direct rail connection exists between Grand Central and Penn Station, so in essence, Metro-North operates a separate network from the LIRR and NJT. This creates a fractured commuter rail system: not great for connectivity.
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The reason why New York has two separate terminals is due to the fact that two competing rail companies used to run trains to New York. Penn Station was operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, while Grand Central Terminal was used by the New York Central Railroad. Despite merging together into the Penn Central Transportation Company in 1968, the two rail terminals were never connected. Even after all the railroads came into control of the New York and New Jersey state governments in the 1980s, the two rail systems still remained islanded from each other.
In 1991, Amtrak finished construction of the Empire Connection rail line that ran along the west side of Manhattan. For the first time, this allowed trains on the former New York Central Railroad-owned Empire Corridor line running from New York City to Albany, N.Y., to operate directly into Penn Station. Amtrak service to Grand Central Terminal ceased, and the company saved significantly from having to operate two stations in the same area.
With the consolidation of Amtrak services into Penn Station, the station started to experience overcrowding. It was near its capacity, but demand for commuter and intercity trains into the station only increased. To alleviate some of these problems, the East Side Access project was started in 2007 to allow for LIRR trains to also operate into Grand Central rather than being forced to use only Penn Station. The project is expected to open in December 2022 and will free up terminal space at Penn Station by diverting some LIRR trains to Grand Central.
That is where the proposed Penn Station Access project comes in. Penn Station Access would allow Metro-North trains the option to also run into either Penn Station or Grand Central. This would help further integrate the two rail stations and greatly enhance connectivity. No longer would passengers need to endure a subway transfer to change from a train from New Jersey or Long Island to get to the northern New York City suburbs or Connecticut. One-seat commuter rides between New Jersey and Connecticut could also finally happen. (Currently, the only direct rail link between New Jersey and Connecticut is provided by Amtrak, but Amtrak does not operate commuter services, only intercity services that omit most stops.)
This project would occur in two phases. Phase One is to connect Metro-North’s New Haven Line to Penn Station first. Phase Two is to allow Metro-North’s Hudson Line to run into Penn Station. This would bring two out of three of Metro-North’s east-of-Hudson rail services into Penn Station.
Phase One is funded and construction is expected to start after East Side Access opens later this year. It could open as soon as 2027.
This phase would allow the New Haven Line, the commuter rail line serving the New York-New Haven section of the Northeast Corridor rail line, to access Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line that allows Amtrak trains to run from the Northeast Corridor into Penn Station.
Construction on this phase mainly includes the opening of four new train stations in the Bronx, at Co-Op City, Morris Park, Park Chester, and Hunts Point. Signaling, power systems, rail yards, and railroad bridges would have to be upgraded to allow for more trains to run along the Hell Gate Line. A third track would also need to be built for extra capacity. Since the Hell Gate Line is itself already a part of the fully electrified Northeast Corridor, no extra track is needed to bring New Haven Line trains onto it.
Besides improving connectivity, a key benefit to this phase is providing rail transit service to several transit deserts in the Bronx. The four new Bronx stations will be built in areas that have are not served by the subway or any other commuter rail lines, so a station built here would greatly shorten commute times into Manhattan. (Currently, residents in these neighborhoods commuting into Manhattan must drive or take a slow bus.)
Another proposal that could be added into this phase, later on, is an extra station in Queens, either in Astoria near the terminals of the N and W subway lines or in Woodside near Northern Boulevard, where a connection to the M and R subway lines could be made. Should this be built, it would provide a direct rail connection between the Bronx and Queens for the first time, and it would complement the proposed Interborough Express line (which would connect Queens and Brooklyn) greatly. This station might also have a future connection to LaGuardia Airport.
The completion of this phase would make through-running New Haven Line trains and NJT trains possible. The best NJT line for this operation would probably be the Northeast Corridor Line, which serves the section of the Northeast Corridor south of New York to Trenton. Since both lines would be electrified, the same train sets and rolling stock could be used.
This would not only help improve the connectivity of Newark Liberty International Airport substantially by providing it with direct trains to the Bronx and Connecticut (the airport is a major station on NJT’s Northeast Corridor Line), it would also make commuting between New Jersey and Connecticut much more realistic with a direct commuter rail ride. Not to mention, current commuters on the New Haven Line who have offices on the west side of Manhattan would not need to transfer to the subway.
Overall, this phase, which is expected to cost $2.9 billion, would bring about major benefits to the New York metropolitan area.
The second phase, which remains unfunded, would allow Metro-North Hudson Line trains running as far as Poughkeepsie, N.Y., a direct ride to Penn Station. The project would require electrifying the Empire Connection since most of the Hudson Line trains are electric. Fully double-tracking the connection would also need to be done to increase capacity. Alternatively, not electrifying the line would mean purchasing new equipment to allow for dual-mode (diesel and electric) carriages to run on the Hudson Line.
It would also construct two new stations in Manhattan — one on 125th Street and one on 62nd Street — to complement it.
This phase would serve to diversify the number of places Penn Station serves, and along with Phase One, would help build in more redundancy in the system. It would minimize the reliance on one set of lines or stations, better safeguarding the system against natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
Due to the lack of land acquisitions needed to complete Penn Station Access and the fact that little new track needs to be built, it seems likely that it could happen within a reasonable timeframe without overrunning its budget too much. Its relatively lower costs could bring about a far greater economic benefit to the New York area, and so it should be built as soon as possible.