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I'm going to be buying a house in Roslyn and I wanted to know if the East Side access project would have any positive benefits to the Oyster Bay line on the LIRR. Do you guys know which lines will be going into Grand Central and is there any chance this project would allow the Oyster Bay line to not have to transfer at Jamaica? I tried searching online but wasn't able to find any details so any info would be appreciated.
The double-deck coaches used in diesel territory, such as the Oyster Bay line, cannot fit into the new tunnels to Grand Central. I see little hope of Oyster Bay getting direct service to Grand Central unless the LIRR buys non-powered one-level coaches to replace the Kawasaki C3 cars.
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I am more annoyed by the downgrading of Brooklyn service to a shuttle leaving from the new Track 9 at Jamaica. Mid-town (East 42nd Street and West 32nd Street) will get direct service, and Brooklyn will get no direct service.
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More directly to your question: Service from these branches are candidates for service to Grand Central: Huntington (not Port Jeff), Ronkonkoma, Babylon (not Montauk), Port Washington (highly probable), Far Rockaway (I doubt), West Hempstead (I doubt), Hempstead (only a maybe), Long Beach (possible). It would be interesting to learn stats of which branches bring most passengers to or through Jamaica each morning. I suspect that the top electric branches (Babylon, Ronkonkoma, Huntington, Port Washington) will get the service.
Last edited by Joe63; 08-09-2016 at 09:28 AM..
Reason: Added Port Washington
The double-deck coaches used in diesel territory, such as the Oyster Bay line, cannot fit into the new tunnels to Grand Central. I see little hope of Oyster Bay getting direct service to Grand Central unless the LIRR buys non-powered one-level coaches to replace the Kawasaki C3 cars.
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I am more annoyed by the downgrading of Brooklyn service to a shuttle leaving from the new Track 9 at Jamaica. Mid-town (East 42nd Street and West 32nd Street) will get direct service, and Brooklyn will get no direct service.
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More directly to your question: Service from these branches are candidates for service to Grand Central: Huntington (not Port Jeff), Ronkonkoma, Babylon (not Montauk), Port Washington (highly probable), Far Rockaway (I doubt), West Hempstead (I doubt), Hempstead (only a maybe), Long Beach (possible). It would be interesting to learn stats of which branches bring most passengers to or through Jamaica each morning. I suspect that the top electric branches (Babylon, Ronkonkoma, Huntington, Port Washington) will get the service.
Far Rockaway primarily (but not exclusively) serves Atlantic Terminal. I would hope that we get compensated for this loss by getting some direct GCT service.
However, as I understand it, all the lines are going to have access to GCT, whether direct or via transfer in Sunnyside.
Its going to be a disaster for GCT. Its already packed as hell at rush hours. Can't imagine what its going to be like with tens of thousands more people at the same time.
Its going to be a disaster for GCT. Its already packed as hell at rush hours. Can't imagine what its going to be like with tens of thousands more people at the same time.
It will be fine. It will an entirely different concourse that will be below the current GCT. Penn has much more passenger traffic, less adequate waiting areas and many fewer tracks, yet it somehow does the job.
GCT isn't that bad. It's much much better than Penn. About half the tracks at GCT actually go unused. I believe ESA could have happened much more quickly and cheaply if it utilized those tracks rather than build a whole new concourse. But i suppose that would have meant significant Metro North service disruptions during the construction phase. I also know nothing about rail transportation engineering.
It will be fine. It will an entirely different concourse that will be below the current GCT. Penn has much more passenger traffic, less adequate waiting areas and many fewer tracks, yet it somehow does the job.
GCT isn't that bad. It's much much better than Penn. About half the tracks at GCT actually go unused.
It will be fine. It will an entirely different concourse that will be below the current GCT. Penn has much more passenger traffic, less adequate waiting areas and many fewer tracks, yet it somehow does the job.
GCT isn't that bad. It's much much better than Penn. About half the tracks at GCT actually go unused. I believe ESA could have happened much more quickly and cheaply if it utilized those tracks rather than build a whole new concourse. But i suppose that would have meant significant Metro North service disruptions during the construction phase. I also know nothing about rail transportation engineering.
To be clear, the problem comes from an old-fashioned design which doesn't take into account crowd flow. On the main concourse there are at least three traffic flows which cross each others path - many people not even using the railroad but crossing diagonally across the concourse with regard to the met life building exit escalators to the 4,5,6 or the shuttle. This directly conflicts with mass flows of people entering and exiting the railroad platforms.
Unless the LIRR passengers either exit the bldg. without coming on to the concourse, or access the subways without coming on to the concourse, its not going to work well. I haven't seen the plans for crowd flow tho - just the report of the consultant paid to find it was going to work... found it was going to work...
does the new concourse exit directly to street level? If so, that will obviously mitigate impacts to crowds traveling through GCT during rush hours.
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