After 25 years now it’s obvious that Forgotten New York, besides a chronicler of a NYC the guidebooks won’t tell you about, is also enthusiastic about NYC’s infrastructure. To that end, today I’m turning it over to a published transit chronicler to talk about the new LIRR concourse at Grand Central Terminal, named Grand Central Madison.
BY ANDY SPARBERG
Guest Post
GRAND Central Madison (GCM) is the brand name LIRR uses for its new terminal below the existing Metro North Grand Central Terminal, which has been there in its present form since 1913, and in earlier incarnations going back to the 1870s. So for the last century and a half, it’s been a major rail transit hub. LIRR’s new terminal eliminates the need for riders to switch to subways (at Woodside, Hunterspoint Ave., or Penn) to complete a trip between LIRR stations and Midtown East Side destinations.
GCM is actually two double-deck caverns, deep underground below Park Avenue. Each cavern consists of four tracks (two over two) and two island platforms, giving the terminal a total of eight tracks and four island platforms. Upper level tracks are numbered 201 through 204; lower level ones are logically 301 through 304. Tracks 201-202 are atop 301-302 and constitute the west cavern. Correspondingly, Tracks 203-204 are atop 303-304 and are called the east cavern. Both caverns are directly below Park Avenue; the 300-level tracks are about 140 feet below the street surface.
Traditionally, Grand Central is associated with 42nd Street, but the new LIRR terminal extends its length to 48th Street. The LIRR caverns extend from 45th to 48th Streets, making the front of an inbound train, or the back end of an outbound train, line up with 45th Street. Conversely, 48th Street is back of an inbound train and the front end of an outbound train.
Four sets of long, high-speed escalators, corresponding to 45th through 48th Streets, connect the track levels to the Madison Concourse level, which in turn runs north-south one level below and north of the Metro-North dining concourse. Once a LIRR customer arrives on the Madison Concourse level, all streets, between 48th and 42nd, and Madison, Park, and Lexington Avenues, can all be accessed through a series of passageways, stairs, elevators, and escalators. Metro-North’s three lines (Hudson, Harlem, New Haven) and the subways (4, 5, 6, 7 and 42nd St. Shuttle) are accessed the same way.
When you arrive at GCM on a LIRR train, you must proceed either up or down to a common mezzanine between the two track levels. From there you proceed to the long escalators that take you to the Madison Concourse level. If you are departing on an eastbound train it works in reverse; everyone must take an escalator to the common mezzanine and then one must proceed up or down to one of the four platforms. Electronic signs provide the necessary information.
Keep in mind that transferring to the subway at Grand requires more walking than at Penn Station, even though it’s all underground. That’s because LIRR trains do not go south of 45th Street, and the subway is at 42nd Street. It’s easier to transfer to Metro-North trains – two east-west cross passageways at 45th and 47th Street connect directly to Metro-North platforms.
From the MTA website, this is a diagram of LIRR’s Madison Concourse. I added the two dashed white arrows at the bottom right to show the physical relationship between the two track caverns and the rest of the terminal.
Andy Sparberg is a retired (since June 2007) LIRR manager, who has continued to work part time in the transportation field as an author, tour leader, and university lecturer. His book From a Nickel to a Token (2015, Fordham Press) chronicles the NYC mass transit system between 1940 and 1968.
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2/22/24
14 comments
Too bad that they don’t have moving walkways, like they do in airport terminals. Having to walk 1/3 mile to get to the LIRR from GCT is annoying. (I now live in Westchester, and would use the connection to reach JFK via LIRR and the Airtrain from Jamaica).
I always allow plenty of time.
From the way Andy Spareberg describes to get to in from this stop, it feel like a major hassle, plus I felt that this could have been built without going overbudget especially by using some of the tracks that Metro North RR wasn’t using rather than building their owns even deeper.
Tal; As a “New Yorker” you should expect that cost overruns in municipal construction projects are considered be “business as usual”. Here’s the story of the only time I can recall of someone saying & then proving that there was a better way:
https://nypost.com/2017/01/22/saving-wollman-rink-made-trump-a-new-york-city-hero/
I look forward to all the faux outrage that might follow.
To respond to the first comment, it is not a hassle to use GC Madison as long as the rider understands the station’s geography. Any Manhattan destination is east of 6th Avenue between 40th and 57th Streets is walkable from the new LIRR station, and does not require subway transfers from Penn Station or Queens stations.
Second, understand that Metro North and LIRR trains cannot share GCM tracks. The third rail systems are different – MNR uses an overrunning third rail; LIRR uses the more common underrunning third rail (same as NYC subway and PATH). Signal systems are also different and not compatible. The reasons are that each railroad was originally a separate private entity with no corporate links between them. Metro North was the New York Central Railroad (and allowed the New Haven Railroad to operate on its tracks to reach Manhattan). LIRR was a separate firm and was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad after 1900. LIRR came into the public domain in 1966; MTA was created in 1968, the same year that the NY Central-New Haven operation became part of the Penn Central RR. In turn, the Penn Central commuter lines at Grand Central came under MTA jurisdiction in 1971. Thus the legacies of private operators remain with us to this day.
Should also note that the Madison Concourse built for LIRR riders was originally the site of storage tracks for Metro North (and its predecessors) that were used to park and service trains between rush hours and overnight. The facility was called Madison Yard. A new storage and maintenance facility was constructed for Metro North in The Bronx, just north of Yankee Stadium, to replace Madison Yard. It is called Highbridge Yard.
This IS about the one-year anniversary of GCM, and I hope they’ve worked out all the kinks.
How many ticket windows do they have down in the LIRR part? Does anyone use them? I’ve noticed that ticket windows and ticket machines in the main hall of GCT are not used much anymore, with a radical dropoff of custom, even on major holidays. This rapid disuse of cash not just in railroads but everywhere else is a significant story, but papers never mention it.
I have seen neither. I think they’re expecting most people to use the app and my guess is paper tickets will be discontinued in 5 years or less.
It’s funny, maybe they’re already abandoning the ticket machines, as far as maintaining them. A few weeks ago, when it was raining every day, which is the only time I take the Newark Subway, the machine malfunctioned twice. Once, for 1.60, it gave me a ticket to Penn Station NY, not Penn Station Newark, and the second time, it spit out two tickets to Hackettstown, worth 19.50, even though I had paid 1.60. I’ve never been to Hackettstown but might go just to use these tickets.
Andy, that was a great piece, thank you. I’d like to add a few thoughts to it. First, is that the LIRR tunnels actually continue further south. While the train platforms are from 45th to 48th, there the tracks continue, allowing sufficient room to store a full train on each. That allows for GCM to have a type of storage yard to lay up trains. Second, even if there was a way to run Metro North and LIRR (and there is not), the complexities of the below ground infrastructure don’t work, either. The upper level of the Metro North tracks run close to the surface of Park Avenue, and the lower level is immediately beneath the upper. Coming from under the East River, the LIRR has to pass under pre-existing things such as as the Lexington Avenue subway line on the way to GCM. From that real-life situation, the grade change that would be required to rise from the 63rd Street tunnel to reach the lower level of the Metro North tracks is impossible for a train to accommodate.
Thank you for the kind words – they are appreciated. Let me add a few other points that explain further why the LIRR is too deep to permit connection to Metro-North. First, the LIRR enters Manhattan using the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel; the F train uses the upper level. The 63rd St. tunnel, and the earlier IND subway tunnel at 53rd Street, both must go under Metro-North’s Park Ave. tunnel. Second, LIRR becomes two levels as it enters the GCM station to allow its eight terminal tracks to fit within the width of Park Avenue (about 100 feet), to avoid disturbing the building foundations along the sidewalks.
Indeed, what goes on beneath the streets is an amazing tangle of pedestrian, vehicular, rail, gas, steam, water and sewer tunnels, as well as gas lines, water lines and a myriad of electrical and communication cables. Kevin, perhaps you may take a dive underground now and then to shine a spotlight on this fascinating matter. While most of what is underground is identified and mapped, there remains plenty from the past that is only “discovered” during current excavation work. Such new “finds” have to be investigated for structural stability and to determine if they are “live” (actively in use) or “dead” (not connected to anything) before they may be added to the modern maps.
Beautiful construction… was very impressed when I made a visit in the fall . Even the bathrooms are luxurious. One concern, very little if any seating. Had to sit on the floor of the mezzanine while waiting for LIRR train… Maybe I was not waiting in the correct areas ?
They don’t want homeless to sit, so nobody can sit.