LIRR service to Grand Central Madison - "The new station, located below Grand Central Terminal, is now open. Try our shuttle service between Jamaica and Manhattan and explore the new terminal."
TV news clips:
The governor was on the first train, and in her speech, she said that the project was worked on during the terms of eight of her predecessors.
I fact-checked her assertion with the help of
List of governors of New York - Wikipedia and
East Side Access - Wikipedia and
63rd Street Tunnel - Wikipedia
From the ESA article, "The first proposals to bring LIRR service to a terminal in eastern Midtown Manhattan arose in 1963", then discussing how the 63rd-Street Tunnel got two tracks for the LIRR in addition to two tracks for city subway trains. Construction of that tunnel started in 1969. All that took place under Nelson Rockefeller's governorship, and he was indeed the eighth governor before KH.
That tunnel was completed in 1976, connecting subway-train tunnels to Manhattan were opened in 1989, and to Queens in 2001.
For the ESA itself, construction started in 2007, with the delivery of two tunnel boring machines for the Manhattan tunnels. Those machines started their work that year. On the Queens side, two TBM's were delivered there also, and they started their work in 2011.