Celebration of Full-Scale Long Island Rail Road Service to Grand Central Madison Beginning Monday, February 27

On Sunday, February 26 Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, along with federal and local elected officials celebrated the official opening of Grand Central Madison with full Long Island Rail Road service to begin today, Monday, February 27. The new schedules provide increased service levels by a historic 41 percent and offer direct access to Midtown east, the biggest job hub in the country, provide more frequent, reliable service, including in Queens and Brooklyn, and true reverse-peak service on the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma Branches for the first time.

“Grand Central Madison is a public transportation feat that will shorten commutes, giving commuters time back in their busy lives to spend with their families, friends and communities,”Governor Hochul said. “Grand Central Madison will dramatically expand service and operate more reliably for commuters and reduce overcrowding at Penn Station. Thanks to our continued partnership with Senator Schumer and the New York Congressional delegation, we will continue building safe and efficient public transportation worthy of New Yorkers.”

The new schedules add 271 LIRR trains per day and increase LIRR systemwide service to 936 trains per day, of which 296 will be to or from Grand Central Madison. The Grand Central Madison project, funded in part by USDOT, follows two other significant LIRR capital projects: the Double Track Project, which installed a second track for 13 miles between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma; and the Third Track Project, which installed a 9.8-mile third track between Floral Park and Hicksville. These once-in-a-generation investments alleviated certain capacity constraints, enabling the railroad to increase service and comprehensively rewrite the schedules for the first time in decades.

The Combo Ticket
The beginning of service now enables the possibility of transferring directly between the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad. To provide a seamless connection between the systems, the MTA has introduced the “Combo Ticket” – a single ticket that enables customers to travel between Long Island, Manhattan’s northern suburbs and Connecticut all with one fare.

The Combo Ticket enables riders to buy a LIRR ticket in Huntington for a trip to White Plains or a Metro-North ticket in Poughkeepsie for a trip to Montauk. Riders choose their origin station with Grand Central as their destination and pay the regular fare plus a flat rate of eight dollars for a continuing trip to any destination on the other railroad. For more on the combo ticket, visit https://new.mta.info/fares/combo-ticket.

Officials Formally Open Grand Central Madison LIRR Full Service on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023Marc A. Hermann / MTA

via Press Release

This article was posted on: February 27, 2023