East Side Access is public works project being undertaken by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, designed to bring the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) into a new East Side station to be built along side and incorporated into Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the name of a governmental or quasi-governmental body in each of several areas: Metropolitan Transit Authority of Boston Massachusetts, now the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority — Boston, Massachusetts Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority — Los Angeles County, California Metropolitan Transportation Authority — New York metropolitan area See... Nickname: The Big Apple Motto: Official website: City of New York Location [[Image:|250px|250px|Location of City of New York, New York]] Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R... The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a railroad that serves the length of Long Island, New York. ... Grand Central Terminal, along 42nd Street, next to the Grand Hyatt New York and the Chrysler Building Grand Central Terminal (often still called Grand Central Station, although technically that is the name of the nearby post office and New York City Subway station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line) is...

Why East Side Access?

East Side Access has long been a dream of LIRR riders who work on the East Side of Manhattan, but must now commute into the West Side of Manhattan to the Long Island Rail Road's New York City terminus in Pennsylvania Station. Direct service to the East Side will allow many riders to walk to work and allow other riders to reduce the number of subway and bus transfers they must make in order to reach their jobs, shortening and simplifying their commutes. The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Penn Stations underground Long Island Rail Road concourse Pennsylvania Station is one of New York Citys main railway stations, sharing the Pennsylvania Station name with several stations in other cities. ...

East Side Access Route and Service

Extending between Sunnyside, Queens and Grand Central Terminal, the East Side Access project will route the LIRR through new track connections in Queens to new tunnels under Sunnyside Yard and through the lower level of the existing 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River. In Manhattan, a new tunnel will begin at the western end of the 63rd Street Tunnel at Second Avenue, curve south under Park Avenue and enter a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal. Park Avenue in the Upper East Side (2004) Park Avenue (formerly Fourth Avenue) is a wide boulevard that carries traffic north and south in Manhattan in New York City. ...

Current plans call for 24 train-per-hour service to Grand Central Terminal during peak morning hours, with an estimated 162,000 passenger trips to and from Grand Central Terminal on an average weekday.

Current status

Surprisingly, East Side Access has enjoyed sufficient funding levels to reach completion within its proposed construction timeframe of approximately 11 years. This is surprising because other public works projects in New York City and State have languished for decades due to a lack of public funding commitments. Whatever the reason, East Side Access is about half way through completion as of early 2006, with real construction work ongoing, and a 2012 completion date still on target.

Unintended side effects

East Side Access is likely to affect commuting patterns in Manhattan and put greatly increased passenger loads on the already dangerously overcrowded IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the sole East Side subway line, as well as surface bus routes on the East Side. East Side Access might have the unintended affect of forcing the city to build the long delayed Second Avenue Line along the far East Side of Manhattan to relieve North/South commmuting pressure emanating from Grand Central Terminal. The Lexington Avenue Line (sometimes called the Lex or the IRT East Side Line) is one of the major IRT lines in the New York City Subway. ... Proposed route of the 2nd Avenue Subway T Line and Q extension The Second Avenue Line, usually called the Second Avenue Subway (SAS), refers to a series of public works projects and engineering studies undertaken to construct a subway underneath Second Avenue in New York Citys borough of Manhattan. ...

External link

• MTA's Offical East Side Access Project Page