(Newsday posted the following article by Joie Tyrrell on its website on February 7.)
NEW YORK — An agreement reached recently by the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak has pushed the long-awaited commuter rail link to Grand Central closer to reality, railroad officials said Tuesday.
But federal funding of the $7-billion plus East Side Access project still must be secured.
“First of all, the project couldn’t go on without it,” LIRR president James Dermody said Tuesday of the agreement with Amtrak. “This is the best agreement for all the railroads involved.”
To access the tunnel to Grand Central, the LIRR must travel over and also under property owned by Amtrak. Both the railroad and Amtrak own tracks, property and yards at Sunnyside, Queens, and also share tracks at the Harold Interlocking west of Woodside. Harold Interlocking is the section of tracks where LIRR and Amtrak Northeast corridor trains merge and are aligned to go through Penn Station’s four East River tunnels.
The railroad and Amtrak have agreed to allow the LIRR to tunnel under the Amtrak-owned Sunnyside yard so LIRR trains can reach the tunnel to Grand Central, Dermody said.
Also, railroad officials and Amtrak agreed on a configuration of Harold Interlocking near Long Island City to route trains to and from both Penn Station and Grand Central.
“The most important thing we needed was a separation of the traffic patterns coming out of New York tunnels and going to New England,” said David Hughes, Amtrak’s acting president. “You build something like this every 100 years. If you don’t get it right, you have to live with it a long time and it was difficult, but we got it right.”
The railroad will also buy some easements from Amtrak that will cost $35 million and will relocate some Amtrak maintenance and employee facilities.
Dermody said the Federal Transit Administration had “strongly suggested” an agreement be in place before a full funding grant was announced.
Yesterday morning in a news conference, deputy federal transit administrator Sandy Bushue said, “Hopefully soon a full funding agreement will be signed” for East Side Access. The project, including capital and financing costs, is estimated to cost more than $7.7 billion.
“We are working very, very closely with the folks in trying to get that full funding grant agreement signed,” Bushue said.
Next step is to design the Harold Interlocking and also conduct environmental soil testing on Amtrak property, Dermody said. Both sides have been negotiating for about two years.
The East Side Access alignment will connect to the LIRR’s Port Washington branch and Main Line tracks within the Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside. From Harold, the alignment will proceed through five tunnels under the yard to a section beginning at the edge of the existing LIRR yard.