RAILROAD.NET

Back when Empire Service terminated at NYG until 1991, there were shuttles NYP <-> NYG. This summer passengers must make their own connections. There are two routes by subway : 1/2/3 north to Times Square and shuttle or 7 east to Grand Central. Which is favored: shuttle or 7? The shuttle directly leads into the west concourse of GCT, but the 7 is deeper and requires two levels of escalators. At Times Square, the 7 is directly below the IRT 1/2/3 lines, shuttle further away on the concourse. (For those with extra time and no loads to carry and wanting a one-seat transfer, there's the Q32 bus from Penn Station to Grand Central stopping on Madison a block away).

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Back when Empire Service terminated at NYG until 1991, there were shuttles NYP <-> NYG. This summer passengers must make their own connections. There are two routes by subway : 1/2/3 north to Times Square and shuttle or 7 east to Grand Central. Which is favored: shuttle or 7? The shuttle directly leads into the west concourse of GCT, but the 7 is deeper and requires two levels of escalators. At Times Square, the 7 is directly below the IRT 1/2/3 lines, shuttle further away on the concourse. (For those with extra time and no loads to carry and wanting a one-seat transfer, there's the Q32 bus from Penn Station to Grand Central stopping on Madison a block away).

The shuttle if you can swing it. But if it's between Midnight and 7am, the 7 is your only bet.

R36: Agreed - the Amtrak-contracted shuttle buses made transfers between NYP and NYG a little
easier before the Empire Service moved over to Penn Station beginning in the Spring of 1991...

You left out the option of taking the NYCT M4 bus - which runs right along with the Q32 from the
same bus stop on West 32nd Street east of the main 7th Avenue NYP entrance - over to 44th and
Madison Avenue to the closest and lesser congested side entrance to GCT...The only trouble with
using the one seat bus option is depending on time of day it may well be faster to walk between
stations instead of dealing with Midtown Manhattan Gridlock ...MACTRAXX

Incidentally the M4 is now trimmed back to 5th Avenue and 32nd, effective July 15. No service to Penn Station.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Incidentally the M4 is now trimmed back to 5th Avenue and 32nd, effective July 15. No service to Penn Station.

R36: Interesting change concerning the M4 bus that I was not aware of...At least the Q32 boarding
location is unchanged - so much for having the redundancy of being able to use either bus route...
The first two blocks to 5th Avenue and the turn north on Madison Avenue is probably the most
congested segment of the Q32 route that a GCT bound rider would experience...MACTRAXX

The bus is probably slower than walking. I'd only take the bus if I was loaded with luggage or the weather was bad. As far as subways, the shuttle and 1/2/3 trains is faster but my impression is that the 7 train route has less walking.

Just use Via! Or you could take the 7 to the 123

Over the past week or so a new steel support column was erected for one of the concrete beams that decked the formerly open space west of 9th Avenue. The new column is south of yard track 7E, but closer to the track than the old column which is probably 4-6 feet further south. While I am not privy of the details why this is being done, I would venture to guess that it is correcting some "screw up" from the original decking over the tracks. The possibilities generally are two:
1. The original design/construction was messed up and had to be redone
2. Amtrak messed up and allowed the old column at a location that it should not be (maybe in the way of tracks for Gateway/Penn South?)

In other developments, ballast has been dumped on track 3D and the digging in the space formerly occupied by track 5A continues.

How close is Amtrak to putting DV bridge back on it's mid river support pier?
Aug 23 finish date is closing in!

I saw photos of it being done a few days ago. Bottom right hand column has photos of bridge return on Aug 1.

https://media.amtrak.com/media-images/s ... st-lifter/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's good to see it back in place,the Lake Shore will return to NY Penn soon enough.

Any thoughts if the route through NYP will be completed on schedule? Im planning a trip north towards the end of September, but you know how deadlines can seem to be pushed back indefinitely.
Booking a ticket doesnt throw up any issues, but thats probably working under the assumption that itll be done when they first expected it to be.

Terrific Amtrak photo of the bridge being replaced as Amtrak heads to GCT

https://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/upl ... 0353-1.jpg

Amtrak's website reports that the reconstruction work is on schedule. They put out a monthly update and various other information. Here's the monthly report: https://www.amtrak.com/about-amtrak/nyp ... ports.html

install (track 19 improvements) underplatform and column lighting gives me a chuckle.