West Side Line (NYCRR) - Empire Connection

Empire Connection

Prior to construction of the Empire Connection, passenger trains traveling the Empire Corridor via Albany from Upstate New York or beyond (including Chicago) into New York came into Grand Central Terminal. Penn Station was on the separate Northeast Corridor. (Penn Station could be reached from the Empire Corridor, but only via an impractical route from the Bronx that then backtracked several miles to the north to a Northeast Corridor line.) Passengers traveling beyond New York on the Northeast Corridor were forced to transfer between Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station via shuttle bus, taxicab or subway.

When the West Side Yard for the Long Island Rail Road was built on the west side of Manhattan in 1986, a tunnel was built under it connecting Penn Station to the West Side Line just west of Tenth Avenue, near the Javits Center. When additional funding later became available, one track along the northern part of the West Side Line was rebuilt for passenger service and termed the Empire Connection. A short section of track into Penn Station was electrified using third rail and with overhead catenary, since diesel locomotives are not allowed to operate in the station tunnel. A wye was constructed to allow diesels to turn around. The Empire Connection allows trains traveling the Empire Corridor to reach Penn Station. The Empire Connection was double tracked north of 39th St to the Harlem River bridge in the mid-1990s.

On April 7, 1991, all Amtrak Empire Service trains started using the new Empire Connection into Penn Station. Beside being more convenient for passengers, this saved Amtrak the expense of operating two stations in New York City.

Metro-North Railroad is studying ways it could also serve Penn Station. One alternative under study would run some Hudson Line commuter trains into Penn Station via the Empire Connection, possibly with new station stops at West 125th and West 62nd Streets.