NEW YORK — The Long Island Rail Road has added more seating on the mezzanine level of Grand Central Madison, responding to customer requests during a period of rising ridership at the two-year-old facility.
The station originally had no seating on the mezzanine — the area between the two levels of tracks well below Grand Central Terminal — but 28 seats were added near 47th Street in October 2024. The new additions include 14 seats at 45th Street and 28 seats at 46th Street. The major seating area remains on the Madison Concourse near the station’s ticket and customer-service windows.
“As Grand Central Madison has become a major destination,” Shanifah Rieara, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chief customer officer, said in a press release, “we listened to customer feedback and have added new seating options in three locations on the mezzanine level as well as the customer waiting area on the Madison Concourse to ensure the most comfortable experience while riding the rails.”
The aluminum seating is available to ticketed LIRR customers with a 90-minute level.
The MTA said its latest survey shows customer satisfaction for Grand Central Madison at 90% to 97% regarding such matters as signs and wayfaring, digital displays, safety, and platform lighting. Overall, customers indicated 86% satisfaction with stations.
Grand Central Madison, which opened in January 2023, is used by about 70,000 people each weekday. Overall, LIRR ridership reached 1.72 million passengers in the seven-day period ending July 23. That included a post-pandemic record of 298,419 passengers on July 23. Prior to the pandemic, the railroad averaged 316,692 on weekdays in 2019.
