(The following story by Jennifer Manley appeared on the Queens Chronicle website on September 1.)
NEW YORK — The East Side Access project, the ambitious plan to bring the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Station with a stop in Sunnyside, is moving ahead, with a scheduled completion date of 2013.
The project will link the existing branch of the Long Island Rail Road under the Sunnyside railyards, through the existing 63rd Street tunnel and under Park Avenue to Grand Central Station. Currently, the LIRR runs only to Penn Station, on Manhattan’s West Side.
Work has been under way since 2001, but this summer, a bid was accepted for a company to dig the 3.5 miles of Manhattan tunnels needed to bring the LIRR deep under Grand Central Station, according to Beverly Dolinsky, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Some work in Queens is already under way as well: Upgrades are being made to the tracks near Woodside Avenue and 65th Street, and a large shaft completed in 2003 will be expanded underneath Northern Boulevard by the Sunnyside Railyards, according to the MTA.
The project has been in the works since the 1960s, running into obstacles including arguments over environmental remediation with Amtrak, which owns the land underneath the Sunnyside yards, and objections to a planned ventilation building from high profile neighbors on 50th Street in Manhattan. Funding for the $6.3 billion project is still not completely secured.
The MTA said in February it expected to reach a full funding agreement with the federal government in a matter of months. Dolinsky anticipated it could be reached as early as October.
Despite the numerous setbacks, the project is currently on track—the Manhattan tunneling bid came in at millions less than expected—and is moving forward with strong political support. The Bush administration ranked it as a high priority for funding. “It has a lot of momentum behind it,” added Ellen Shannon, transportation planner for the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, which serves as a watchdog group of the MTA.
An LIRR link directly to Grand Central Station is expected to ease congestion at Penn Station as well as cut down the commute time for Eastern Queens and Long Island residents who work on the East Side. The MTA estimates the new line will serve over 160,000 passengers each day and attract 35,000 new customers to public transit.
In Queens, it could mean a transformation of the Sunnyside Railyards into an intermodal center. The Sunnyside yards and the adjacent Harold Interlocking service several commuter lines including the LIRR, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and Metro North. The new station, to be located under the Queens Boulevard bridge, could also link the commuter rails with subways, buses and taxis.
Speculation has also been raised that a platform could be built over the yards to support thousands of apartments.