When Lynbrook resident Arsenio Hernandez wants to visit his daughter in Connecticut, he has to take the Long Island Rail Road from the Westwood station, in Malverne, to Pennsylvania Station, in Manhattan, and then walk to Grand Central to catch a Metro-North train. But when the East Side Access project is completed, Hernandez will be able to take the train from Westwood straight to Grand Central.
“It would be so much easier,” said Hernandez’s daughter, Norma Van-Vleet.
The project, currently under construction, will begin in Long Island City, Queens, and extend west toward the 63rd Street Tunnel, which runs below the East River, just north of the Queensborough Bridge. At 63rd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, the new LIRR tunnels will head south to Grand Central Terminal at 42nd Street, where trains will arrive and depart on eight platforms, and passengers will enter and exit the terminal via a 180-foot-long escalator.
The goal of the project is to connect Long Island commuters to Grand Central in order to alleviate some of the congestion passengers face when getting to and from Manhattan, especially for work.
East Rockaway resident Jonathan Meneses said he takes a 41-minute train ride into Penn Station each day, then walks 15 minutes to Grand Central to catch another train. Once the East Side Access project is complete, he will have the ability to travel straight to Grand Central, eliminating the need to stop at Penn and walk.