A Journey Underground – East Side Access

Over the one hundred plus years of its existence, Grand Central Terminal has reinvented itself many times to keep pace with the needs of its customers. When long range passenger trains were the norm, passengers could sit and watch a movie at Grand Central’s theater while waiting for their train to depart, or sit in the Terminal’s grand waiting room in Vanderbilt Hall. Today, all of the long distance trains have disappeared, replaced with Metro-North’s commuter service where trains are frequent enough that one rarely has to wait long. While today’s dashing commuter would have little use for a theater,...

Construction on East Side Access Project Halted Indefinitely

Construction on East Side Access Project Halted Indefinitely

While celebrating Grand Central Terminal’s 100th anniversary, we discussed a wide array of topics regarding GCT’s history, and its place in our lives today. The one thing that we failed to mention was one of Grand Central’s futures – a major one being the East Side Access project. Designed to connect the Long Island Rail Road to a new station underneath Grand Central, the new facility was estimated to open by 2019. Unfortunately, that timeline has been called into question after the discovery of fossilized remains in one of the underground tunnels where construction is currently going on. The first...

Pac-Man Inspired Transit Maps

Pac-Man Inspired Transit Maps

The subtitle of this post might as well be “stuff that happens when Emily gets bored.” For some reason I thought it might be amusing to make a completely useless Pac-Man transit map, where all the little dots Pac-Man eats could be stations. Besides maybe looking cool, they’re not going to help you get anywhere… hence my classification of “useless.”

Journey the Harlem Line in 6 minutes: Grand Central to Southeast Time Lapse

Journey the Harlem Line in 6 minutes: Grand Central to Southeast Time Lapse

Have you ever seen these awesome time lapse videos the MTA has done on the LIRR? When I first saw them, I decided I wanted to try the same thing at some point on the Harlem Line. Yesterday I finally got a chance to try it, unfortunately not in HD (didn’t have a big enough memory card to do the whole ride in HD). The ride first starts out in Grand Central, and heads all the way to Southeast. We make all local stops north of White Plains, with the exception of Mount Pleasant. The hour and twenty minute ride...

Who Uses Web Ticket? Metro-North & LIRR Online Discounts to be Discontinued

Who Uses Web Ticket? Metro-North & LIRR Online Discounts to be Discontinued

Yesterday the New York Post reports that Metro-North and LIRR may be phasing out yet another thing to save money: the discounts for buying tickets online. I have to admit though, I am curious: how many people have actually used Web Ticket? It has been around for a few years… I’ve used it a few times. But the one and only reason why I have is because of those discounts. Hell, they even market the whole thing by saying “Welcome to a convenient way to buy Metro-North train tickets for less.” Would people still use Web Ticket if there were...

LIRR’s Amusing Watch the Gap Rap

LIRR’s Amusing Watch the Gap Rap

@LIRRScoop just tweeted a new video posted on YouTube, called the Gap Rap. I LOL’ed and had to share. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HszwgEdnOQw] I do think @MetroNorthTweet needs to teach @LIRRScoop to tweet, properly post links, and not type in all caps…