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Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1480773  by R36 Combine Coach
 
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).
 #1480799  by STrRedWolf
 
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.
 #1480807  by MACTRAXX
 
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 :wink: ...MACTRAXX
 #1480817  by MACTRAXX
 
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
 #1480845  by JoeG
 
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.
 #1480910  by EuroStar
 
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.
 #1482240  by Spitfire2865
 
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.
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