BRONX, N.Y.— New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for the Penn Station Access project, which will allow trains from Metro-North’s New Haven Line to directly serve Penn Station while adding four new stations in the Bronx.
Hochul said in a press release that the project “will not only drastically reduce commute times, but it will also help connect hundreds of thousands of residents and boost local economies,” while Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber called it “a game changer for a huge and transit-deprived swath of the Bronx. 500,000 residents live within just a mile of the four new Metro-North stations, and many more when you look at the entire service area.”
The project will use the Amtrak Hell Gate Line, which currently does not see commuter service, and take advantage of station slots opened at Penn Station by the forthcoming opening of the Grand Central Madison project, which will shift some Long Island Rail Road trains from Penn Station to the new facility beneath Grand Central Terminal.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded the major contract for the project a year ago [see “MTA awards contract …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 16, 2021]. It will add stations at Hunts Point, Parkchester/Van Nest, Morris Park, and Co-op City, which are estimated to reduce commute times by as much as 75 minutes for some passengers.
Currently projected to cost $3.18 billion following the addition of funding of the yard in New Rochelle, N.Y., where the Hell Gate Line meets the New Haven Line, the project is expected to see service beginning in 2027. It will also require four new interlockings, reconfiguration of the Pelham Bay interlocking, five new electrical substations, and upgrades to two existing substations.
“Bringing Metro-North service to Penn Station will connect the subway, LIRR, NJ Transit, PATH, and Amtrak, offering regional connections unlike anywhere else in the country,” said Catherine Rinaldi, Metro-North president and Long Island Rail Road interim president. “The completion of all transportation projects underway will redfeine what transit looks like in the Tri-state area and provide essential transportation to communities with limited options.”
The project will involve adding a third and, for most of its length, a fourth track along Amtrak’s currently double-tracked Hell Gate line, which was built to accommodate up to six tracks. Amtrak, which also benefit from the infrastructure improvements along the Hell Gate Line, is contributing $500 million toward the project, and has agreed to pay any costs resulting from delays if it fails to meet commitments to provide workforce or outages for construction work.
Share this article
