(The following appeared on the Newsday website on July 2.)
NEW YORK — The suburban commuter’s dream of taking the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal is on track.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday that after eight months, the first of two tunnel boring machines has ended its one-mile-long journey that started in the bedrock beneath midtown Manhattan.
The result is a tunnel that will become a new station and concourse beneath Grand Central Terminal at Park Avenue and 42nd Street.
A second tunnel boring machine is scheduled to end its parallel journey by summer’s end.
The project will eventually allow future LIRR access to all eight tracks in the new station under Grand Central.