East Side Access

East Side Access is an infrastructure project which will connect New York's Grand Central Terminal with the rail network in the Long Iceland Railroad.

Project objectives

Currently have traits of Long Iceland Railroad, whose catchment area is the neighborhoods of Queens and the suburbs on Long Iceland, just a station stop in Manhattan, the location on the West Side to Penn Station. This means that commuters who work on the East Side of Manhattan, change to the subway or other means of transport and must go back to get to their workplace on the east side of the city. Alternatively, they may also already in Queens change to the subway. A major goal of the project is therefore to reduce the travel time for commuters from the east of the city.

Another goal is to relieve the existing railway tunnel under the East River and Penn Station, which are used by Amtrak, New Jersey Transit and the Long Iceland Railroad.

Indirect project goals are to make public transport in New York City and the region more attractive, thus to reduce the road traffic and the resulting air pollution and increase the economic performance of the region.

Project

The East Side Access project is to create a branch of the Long Iceland Railroad at the height of the Sunnyside Rail Yards in Queens and underground to lead the route then to the west to an existing tunnel under the East River. A portion of the tunnel is used by the New York subway for line F and reaches Manhattan at the height of 63rd Street. From there, a new tunnel is dug south along Park Avenue under the existing tunnels of the Metro North Railroad to Grand Central Terminal. A new railway station with eight tracks will be created under the Grand Central Terminal and connected by escalators to the existing station complex.

The New York City Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is the bearer of the project. Construction is expected to be completed by 2015. The project cost is estimated 7.2 billion U.S. dollars.