Description
Extending between Sunnyside, Queens, and Grand Central, the project will route the LIRR from its Main Line through new track connections in 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, curving south under Park Avenue and entering a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central.
Current plans call for 24-trains-per-hour service to Grand Central during peak morning hours, with an estimated 162,000 passenger trips to and from Grand Central on an average weekday. Connections to AirTrain JFK at Jamaica Station in Jamaica, Queens, will facilitate travel to John F. Kennedy International Airport from the East Side of Manhattan.
A new LIRR train station in Sunnyside at Queens Boulevard and Skillman Avenue along the Northeast Corridor (which the LIRR uses to get into Pennsylvania Station) will provide one-stop access for area residents to Midtown Manhattan. The station may spur economic development and growth in Long Island City.
The project's estimated cost has increased from $3 billion in 1998 to $6.3 billion in 2006 and $8.4 billion in 2012. Though construction work is ongoing, the completion date for the project has been continually pushed back by the MTA. Once planned to be operational by 2013, the MTA has pushed back the completion date several times, most recently to August 2019. With that new completion date and the 30% cost increase to $8.4 billion, the U.S. DoT inspector general wants an audit done on the project.
The project is likely to increase passenger loads on the already overcrowded IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the sole East Side subway line, and on surface bus routes on the East Side. The project has, therefore, focused attention on the long-delayed Second Avenue Subway along the far East Side of Manhattan, which is again under construction and is expected to relieve north/south commuting pressure. At the same time, the project will reduce the load on morning, northbound rush-hour E train service between Pennsylvania Station and Midtown East.
Read more about this topic: East Side Access
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