The East Side Access Project Discussion (ESA)

Someone mentioned above that the ESA Terminal is 150 ft. below grade. That's over ten floors. Pretty darned deep in the ground. Can anyone here compare that to the depth of the PATH platforms at WTC? How deep are they? And also Hudson Yards on the #7 Line. Long escalator to get down to those platforms too.

Ignoring the summer drunk brat traffic to the Hamptons, what sort of ridership is there out there needing to get to and from midtown either east or west side?

Head-end View wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 7:21 pm Someone mentioned above that the ESA Terminal is 150 ft. below grade. That's over ten floors.

By comparsion, the 7 Line station at GCT is 80 feet (an original 1907 interurban tunnel intended to link
Grand Central Terminal with (then rural) Queens).

Shuttle platform at GCT is 25-30 feet below street level. Hudson Yards is rather deep (8-10 story escalators
from entrance concourse to mezzanine above platform) due to the fact the line has to tunnel under both
the Lincoln Tunnel (three tubes) and Amtrak's Empire Line.

Lots of people go out to the Hamptons who don’t party and drink, but instead want to make a trip involving the beach and other activities like maybe camping in Hither Hills State Park during the warmer months of the year. There are people who have second homes on Eastern LI. As a possible result and I could be inaccurate about this-having some more through trains from the Montauk Line into NYP would be nice after East Side Access opens up. People coming off of those Montauk trains to head to Grand Central would probably end up changing at Jamaica anyway.

They should have access, but regular commuters need to be the priority, especially for direct service into NYP. Apparently LIRR has no plans ever for direct service from diesel country into GCT - that would require cars and locomotives that would fit the East River tunnel.

Kelly&Kelly wrote: ↑Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:12 pm Does everyone one know the first official trip from Jamaica to Grand Central operated today at 8:04 AM?

According to the TIMACS system:

GOVTRAIN departed track 4 in Jamaica 804am on 10/31/21
This was a 6 car M9 consist with leading engine number 9107


And for the return trip....

GOVTRNJA arrived back in Jamaica 952am on track 5. The same consist with 9092 on the leading end.



There are no official timing points in TIMACS for Plaza Interlocking or Grand Central Terminal yet, so there isn't an exact time for the arrival/departure times for GCT.

Yes commuters will certainly get the priority for any new trains that serve the Manhattan hubs. I'm sure that people living in one of the Five Towns(Nassau County Towns on the Far Rockaway Line below Valley Stream) who work in Midtown Manhattan will want more direct rail access there rather than having to get off at Jamaica and change trains there. After East Side Access opens up, we have to wonder what will happen to the trains on the W. Hempstead Branch. I know that it's a very short line but probably commuters living there will want to have direct options to Manhattan. During off peak hours and weekends, it's a shame that passengers have to change twice to head from NYP to any of the stations on the W. Hempstead Line.

I guess they don't know the 'pleasures' of commuting from diesel country. One major evening run, hey, only one transfer, takes at least 90 minutes to get from NYP to East Northport - about 40 miles. The first inbound direct train of the day gets into NYP about 7:25AM - and traditionally is overcrowded, the 2nd one is AFTER rush hour. Eastbound PM first leaves NYP at 4:19 - the construction worker special, the LAST (unless something has changed) at 4:49 - before most people have left work. My guess is that it's still a lot easier to commute from pretty much any station in Nassau.

Another 10 billion thrown into the pot for the MTA via the infrastructure bill. There will probably more capital work on MTA now. I’d like to see if they do the more extensive repair work how Amtrak wanted to do it in the East River tunnels from Sandy damage. Cuomo wanted a less intense weekend outage vs Amtrak long term shut down of each tube at a time. Supposedly Skanska got the project to build the tube(s) under the North River to go into Penn Station. A lot of money being tossed around now.

I noticed on the video posted by the Governor, all of the signals were dark. Were track warrants used from HAROLD to GCT?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG8Qdp3r4Ng

I was wondering if they'd gotten any signals (at least once on ESA trackage) working for Ms. Hochul's campaign trip; what you've said suggests otherwise. Of course, being the only train for miles, switches being lined up manually by out of site workers, no problem. Nor the first time something like this publicity stunt has happened. But they did have to have some 3rd rail power working, along with tunnel lights turned on for the video. Still, it does sort of represent some degree of progress.

I visited the project's home page - East Side Access - Bringing LIRR to Grand Central - no announcement of when it might open.

Going to East Side Access Publications | MTA it says "Updated May 3, 2021" with the most recent dated entry being one of the "Reports" at May 20, 2019. It's odd to find such a total lack of updates for the last three years.

I then looked in Press Releases | MTA selecting Agency: LIRR. Nothing recognizable as about the ESA.

December 2022, says the Halloween 2021 press release on the governor's site. I've found in Virginia the governor's site is often more up-to-date with press releases than the sometimes moribund project pages managed by the state agencies. Journalists and bloggers provide a fuller picture than a press release, of course.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/govern ... nd-central

MTA tends to be very secretive about ESA. Many years behind schedule, $billions wasted. No clue on testing of anything other than the campaign ride by Ms. Hochul.

I recently watched a Youtube video of an M9 cab-ride thru the rebuilt Harold Interlocking. (M9 RFW from Penn Station to Forest Hills) The train passes a clear signal (green-over-red) coming out of the Line 3 tunnel. Then the very next signal to my surprise was a medium-clear (red-over-green).

I didn't think this was possible; at least I've never seen it before. Doesn't a medium-clear have to be preceded by an approach-medium (yellow-over-green)? I thought that was the standard practice. Is this a new rule or procedure that we're going to be seeing more of in the future?