Second Ave. Sagas

Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

  • Andrew Cuomo leads the scrum atop East Side Access’ 182-foot escalators. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Gov. Andrew Cuomo surveys the down escalator underneath 45th St. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Looking down the escalators. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Going up. The 182-foot escalators will be the longest in the MTA’s system. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Inside East Side Access, the passageways are reminiscent of the TWA Flight Center. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Major construction on East Side Access has been completed, but finishes and system testing are yet to be done. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Looking south toward a dead end underneath Park Ave. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Tunnels are dug; tracks are laid; but walls remain bare with 18 months before passengers arrive. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • A view down the tracks. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Signage points the way to street level, anchoring commuters on the Manhattan street grid above. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • East Side Access in progress. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • An arched passageway underneath Grand Central but above the LIRR’s new tracks. With bright walls and familiar marvel, the new station is evocative of Grand Central itself. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Much work remains to be completed. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • East Side Access will connect commuters directly with the subways. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
  • Ceci n’est past une departure board. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

The last time I had been down into the East Side Access cavern far beneath Grand Central Terminal feels like eons ago. It was 2015, a time when New Yorkers commuted daily to their midtown offices, and the cavern was very much just that — a large, dark, very unfinished, damp cave that barely resembled a train station.

I took a trip down to the LIRR’s new midtown home two weeks ago, and after six years, I can confidently confirm there is a new Long Island Rail Road terminal deep in the ground below Grand Central. New York has successfully built a train station underneath another train station. The occasion for the trip was celebratory as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his MTA had just announced that morning, though not for the first time, that the 350,000 square foot terminal will open on time by the end of 2022. It seemed oddly fitting for this long-delayed project that’s taken 20 years and $12 billion to construct that it’s big announcement came amidst a pandemic that has shaken commuting patterns to their very core and has left the future of Midtown Manhattan up in the air, but regardless of the oddities of the times, the Long Island Rail Road will serve the East Side in 18 months or so.

Prior to the press tour of the new terminal, Cuomo hosted one of his famous/infamous pandemic press conference. This was the first one I’ve had the opportunity to sit through, and the Governor spoke a lot, often extemporaneously, making news here and there (particularly about the Gateway Tunnel), and he spoke at length about the challenges of completing East Side Access. “Thanks to the hard work of the so many people, major construction on this transformative project is now complete and we are proud to announce East Side Access will open up next year,” Cuomo said, “significantly cutting travel times and easing the commute into Manhattan for countless travelers. I’ve been through a lot of difficult infrastructure projects during my time in government, and while this project may have been one the most difficult to get accomplished, its completion will have a huge impact on New York’s economy and vibrancy for generations to come and serve as yet another example of what New Yorkers can do when we put our minds to something.”

Cuomo said a lot of eyebrow-raising statements, including claims that the project had stalled out prior to his personal review of it in 2018, and he never mentioned the follow-up L train-inspired review he ordered in April of 2019. He also vowed that the projected 160,000 passengers per day – a relatively paltry total for the billions spent – would be back in their offices by the end of 2022. Maybe he’s right; maybe the world will clamor for the commute and the companionship of the office after 15 months (and counting) of an isolating pandemic. Or maybe the ultimate irony of the East Side Access project will be an opening into a changed world and a changed New York, where we spent countless billions on an under-used deep-bore dead-end terminal underneath Grand Central that never should have been built in the first place. We won’t know this future for a few more years, but this project will never realize full bang for its buck.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo chats with reporters during a tour of the East Side Access project. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Cuomo’s promise to open the station next year come hell or high water set off some familiar alarm bells. When he last made this promise for Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway, he opened the subway before systems testing had been complete, and he drove the opening date by diverting massive MTA resources away from subway maintenance. The subway crisis, which lead to the Subway Action Plan and Andy Byford’s Fast Forward plan, grew out of Cuomo’s push to open the Second Ave. Subway, and Cuomo then later tried to take credit for solutions to the crisis he created. Will this drive to open East Side Access — in a similar state of completion — lead to a repeat of recent history? I’m holding my breath. Neither the city nor the MTA can afford that fate at this moment.

But outside of these concerns and my own long-documented skepticism toward this project and the way the cavern beneath a Metro-North terminal not under capacity highlights the lack of inter-agency cooperation with the MTA, I wanted to offer a few observations about the terminal now that I’ve seen it in its near-finished state. It is, first and foremost, very much an Andrew Cuomo Transit Project. While EXCELSIOR isn’t yet plastered all over the place, the main focus on East Side Access is about getting into and out of New York City, and it does very little to improve getting around NYC. Janno Lieber, the head of MTA Construction & Development, could not answer if the agency planned to further rationalize fares to allow Queens commuters rationally-priced access to LIRR. Cuomo himself spoke at length about how East Side Access will free up space at Penn Station for Penn Station Access, another commuter rail-based project designed to facilitate easier access into and out of NYC (though one with more benefits to Bronx commuters than East Side Access will, on Day One, deliver to Queens).

Thus, the only state-funded project finished under Cuomo’s watch to increase transit capacity in NYC will be Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway (and maybe Phase 2 if Cuomo gets another two terms and it moves forward). Meanwhile, the state has spent or will spend billions on Moynihan Station and the Penn Station South/Empire Station complex, the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, the airport overhauls and new AirTrain and both East Side and Penn Station Access. New York City, with its transit system run by Andrew Cuomo, continues to get the short shrift.

On the physical side, the most evident element of East Side Access is how deep it is. During the press conference, Cuomo tried to sell the depth as a marvel. The new terminal will, he bragged, have 17 high-rise escalators, each 182 feet in length to bring commuters up from 140 feet below Grand Central to the surface. With entrances along Park and Madison Avenues up to around 48th Street, East Side commuters won’t be as far from their offices as they could be, but the depth adds time. The escalators weren’t on during the press tours, but officials said the rides will take 2 minutes at a stand still. These will be the MTA’s deepest escalators, which could spell trouble for an agency with a shaky track record when it comes to escalator maintenance.

Will all of these ticket windows ever be fully staffed? (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

The station feels deep in other ways as well. The visual design of the station is very reminiscent of Grand Central itself with similar typefaces and marble used throughout. In an era of OMNY and digital ticketing, there is, for some reason, a massive ticket hall, but I can’t imagine all of the windows ever being staffed. Still, despite bright lights and arching ceilings, the station feels deep. The ceilings are lower than they would be, and there is no sense of place or direction that far underground. When completed the station will feature ample directions, including street signs, to anchor travelers on the Manhattan street grid. Still, it will be bright and clean in the vein of Grand Central when it opens. It’s very deep. Long escalators and low ceilings, despite a generally pleasant, if sterile, aesthetic.

And finally, East Side Access will be another transit mall — which is fine, though it also relies on a return of pre-pandemic commute volumes. The MTA plans to lease out 25 new retail spaces in the terminal, which will give NYC it’s fifth train station/mall and fourth new one this century. Unlike the Grand Central retail spaces, which are a part of the street level attraction, the new retail spaces will be deeper underground and out of the way. Some will be in the passageways at the top of the 182-foot escalators and some will be in the halls connecting to 1 Vanderbilt. But these spaces will be geared far more toward LIRR commuters than the malls in the PATH Oculus, Grand Central itself or Moynihan Station are.

All of this leads me to wonder how East Side Access will work and what it means for it to work? It’s nearly unique among massive train stations and will rely heavily on a return to the old in an era of the new. It’s a project conceptualized in the 1960s, designed in the 1990s and opened, if on time, in 2022.

Comments

122 responses to “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens”

  1. Larry Penner

    Great article! I wonder what ever happened to Governor Cuomo’s 2019 independent audit on this project? Since 2001, the total direct cost has grown from $3.5 billion in 2001 to $11.2 billion today. This does not include $4 billion more for indirect costs known as “readiness projects” carried off line from the official project budget. This includes $2.6 billion Main Line Third Track, $450 million Jamaica Capacity, $387 million Ronkonkoma Double Track, $120 million Ronkonkoma Yard Expansion, $44 million Great Neck Pocket Track just to name a few support direct implementation of East Side Access. The promised opening service date has slipped on numerous occasions from 2009 to December 2022.

    A detailed project risk assessment by the Federal Transit Administration independent engineer as part of the FTA – MTA 2016 amended ESA Full Funding Grant Agreement predicted a final cost of $12 billion.

    The MTA has repeatedly increased the budget by billions and pushed back the first day of service by thirteen years.

    A cat has nine lives and this project long ago already used all of them. When it comes to completion of ESA, the 1960’s LIRR motto “Line of the Dashing Dan” should be changed to “Line of the Slow Moving Sloth.”

    (Larry Penner — transportation historian and advocate who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for grants supporting billions in capital projects and programs on behalf of the MTA and over thirty other transit operators in NY & NJ).

    Reply
    1. Charles Davis

      Thank you for your informative insights, much appreciated.

      Reply
  2. John

    It will ultimately be the world’s greatest 350,000 sq ft empty cavern.
    Shall we name it the “Nursing Home Victims Memorial Tomb?”

    Reply
    1. Jeremiah Clemente

      No. It will be named “Alternate Penn Station”. East Side Access and Penn Station Access both serve a second purpose: system resiliency, especially from service diversions (if one terminal is out, trains can travel to the other).

      Reply
  3. Brian

    New York City has revived itself from far deeper holes than Covid-19. Remember Fort Apache the Bronx days?

    Reply
  4. A

    I’ve never understood why East Side Access was critical to spend whatever $20 billion on, but New York had to cancel a 7th avenue station in hell’s kitchen to save a few hundred million dollars.

    Reply
    1. Charles Davis

      ¿Are you referring to the scuppered 42nd & ~12th Ave #7 station? That was regrettable. In fact, a Far West continuation both Down & UpTown is sorely needed. It would revitalize economic backwater areas around Javits, the Yards, Clinton… Even just something elevated or street-level like Jersey City Light Rail… from downtown to uptown.
      Having said all that, selfishly \ individually I would favor none of it. It would destroy the peace and tranquility of the remaining oases both downtown and up- protected by their geographic remoteness and relative lack of mass access combined.
      But collectively \ for the City’s good it’d be a home run. West Side doesn’t have enough subway, along with substantial underdeveloped or economically disadvantaged space.

      Reply
  5. DaniBot

    it commuters really don’t return at scale to the old patterns, the danger goes much deeper than ESA. A change in working patterns to a default of remote work for white collar workers would basically end New York City as we know it and toss its sprawling mass transit system into redundancy.

    Given that this is the United States and the New York metro is basically the only surviving example of large-scale, ubiquitous mass transit in a mostly human-scale environment, there is no way it would survive if forced to depend on federal subsidy to maintain its service. The arguments from Republican Senators write themselves: “Why should hardworking families in Omaha and Anchorage pay billions of dollars in federal subsidy to keep the trains running in New York where nobody wants them anyway?”

    Yes it’s disingenuous. Yes it lacks all perspective. Yes it’s incredibly shortsighted and will basically throw away one of the greatest public works ever constructed. But if New Yorkers vote with their feet and refuse to return to their offices, it will absolutely happen.

    I fully expect to start seeing the thinkpiece-machine latch on to the idea that self-driving electric cars are the solution to the climate crisis and that Americans can hang on to their unsustainable, inefficient patterns of land and resource use if they just buy the right product.

    I guess it’s just all very sad. ESA may very well be the last large-scale transit project we ever build in this city.

    Reply
    1. SEAN

      “If commuters really don’t return at scale to the old patterns, the danger goes much deeper than ESA. A change in working patterns to a default of remote work for white collar workers would basically end New York City as we know it and toss its sprawling mass transit system into redundancy.”

      I already herd the “we don’t need cities argument” as a result of remote work, but what nobody mentions in this is if white collar workers can work remotely, they can be replaced by remote workers in countries with the same skills at a far lower wage. You’re aware of this when you need to call customer service or tech support in most businesses today.

      Reply
      1. DaniBot

        “I already herd the “we don’t need cities argument” as a result of remote work, but what nobody mentions in this is if white collar workers can work remotely, they can be replaced by remote workers in countries with the same skills at a far lower wage.”

        Well…yes. That’s very true. Hell we’ve already done this where I work as a result of the pandemic. It’s a crappy development, I don’t agree with it, and it seems really bad for working people in the US.

        But the problem is, whether it’s the Right Thing doesn’t really affect the matter of whether it’s *likely to happen* or not. Capital may want this, the government will probably go along, and the last great urban center in the US may well just disintegrate in the coming decades. It definitely *can* happen, and the tech industry is probably very interested in facilitating it.

        Just sayin.

        Reply
    2. SEAN

      “I fully expect to start seeing the thinkpiece-machine latch on to the idea that self-driving electric cars are the solution to the climate crisis and that Americans can hang on to their unsustainable, inefficient patterns of land and resource use if they just buy the right product.”

      That is until one of these AV’s crashes & kills the passengers within & then the conspiracy theories will blossom especially if a child is a victom. This will be followed by an all out attack on self driving cars as they take away freedom of mobility & go ware they are programed to go, not ware you want them to go.

      Already herd a commentary on this a few years ago from Lionel media on how self driving cars can be used to remove political dissidence with a simple computer hack & suddenly the car strangely crashes for no obvious reason.

      Keep in mind though that Lionel is in the similar mind frame of Alex Jones the notorious conspiracy theorest , so that is something to consider as you read these words.

      Reply
      1. DaniBot

        Look, I’m not trying to say that the “robocar” enthusiasts are *correct* or that their vision of the future is an appealing one. I find it pretty appalling myself, as it would send the trend of social atomization and life-through-screens into overdrive (pun intended).

        I’m merely pointing out that this is *growing* school of thought, particularly among people in the software industry – an industry which, coincidentally, is located primarily in the car-dependent sprawls of California, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest, and an industry whose employees have come to be vested with a *lot* of social and economic power nowadays – and that transit advocates like us are presently responding primarily with outright denial or just ignoring that it exists.

        We need to have an answer for why great transit projects like ESA are necessary, why transit is necessary a public good in general, and how we’re going to improve our performance in the timing and expense of those projects. Otherwise, we may find ourselves crowded out of the conversation around urban planning in the same way that the railroads were almost extinguished during the modernist planning boom of the postwar period.

        Reply
        1. SEAN

          “Look, I’m not trying to say that the “robocar” enthusiasts are *correct* or that their vision of the future is an appealing one. I find it pretty appalling myself, as it would send the trend of social atomization and life-through-screens into overdrive (pun intended).

          I’m merely pointing out that this is *growing* school of thought, particularly among people in the software industry – an industry which, coincidentally, is located primarily in the car-dependent sprawls of California, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest, and an industry whose employees have come to be vested with a *lot* of social and economic power nowadays – and that transit advocates like us are presently responding primarily with outright denial or just ignoring that it exists.”

          Oh, I know you are just pointing things out & thanks.

          Seattle actually has the highest ridership in the country among bus based systems, even post pandemic & many of them are in the tech industry http://www.seattletransitblog.com has pointed out. As for suburban sprall, not everyone wants to live in a car dependent neighborhood where the only options are a personal car or an app to retrieve one just for doing basic life necessities.

          Reply
  6. Bgriff

    I have been curious, where are the entry points to this facility going to be within the current station? I am having trouble placing it.

    Reply
    1. RichT

      Too late, it’s done. The real move would be to run the subway into NJ.; Get rail to the Poconos and build the causeway across Long Island Sound to CT.

      Reply
      1. Charles Davis

        I second this.

        Reply
    2. Tim Berman

      Entries points listed north to south:
      48th St- into 415 Madison and an elevator to street level
      47th St- into both 383 Madison and 270 Park (currently under construction)
      45th St- into Future 347 Madison (341-344-353 building currently being demolished)
      44th St- elevator to street level
      43rd St- two escalators to Biltmore Room to exit into Grand Central Terminal and 43rd St
      43rd St & 42nd St – into 1 Vanderbilt with connections to NYCT
      43rd St- two escalators to exit into Food Court level of GCT
      42nd St- future entrance to Project Commodore building (current Grand Hyatt Building 42nd & Lex) and subway connections

      Reply
  7. Charles Davis

    Great article. You did neglect to blame Cuomo for his part in the pandemic mess, so only 9 out 10 rating lol.

    Reply
    1. DaniBot

      Nobody who follows transit issues or really the news in the past year is a fan of Andrew Cuomo, but what exactly would duplicative criticism of the pandemic response (what *kind* of criticism) achieve here? We’re talking about ESA and how it fits into the transit landscape of the next few years. It’s been an issue since before Andrew Cuomo, and it will continue being an issue after he’s gone.

      Reply
  8. David

    Let’s keep it real. We cannot have anything beautiful in New York City, because the homeless are going to use that location for a shelter.

    Reply
    1. SEAN

      Lets get real. Enough of the “we cant have nice things ” because of the homeless argument. Should we not have rebuilt the WTC because the homeless might choose to move in if it was rebuilt? You cant design any policy out of fear that the homeless might ruin a public space.

      Reply
      1. DaniBot

        I don’t even know how the parent comment is relevant to ESA or the article in general. Like, they gotta connect the dots. Are they saying that the interior of the ESA train hall isn’t as nice as it could be because it needs to be homeless-hostile? That the project shouldn’t have happened at all? I really don’t know what it’s trying to say. It’s just innuendo referencing an unrelated problem to cast aspersions on…what exactly?

        Reply
        1. SEAN

          The thought process goes something like this… NYC & cities like it are democrat shitholes. They are overrun with the homeless where they defecate on the street, encamp themselves in all matter of public buildings & parks, terrorize all the citizens/ visitors just for the fun of it & the democrat polls like it as it will garner the liberal vote as liberals are brain dead.

          Not trying to bring politics into this, but these are the same people who will tell you why as David commented above, “We cannot have anything beautiful in New York City, because the homeless are going to use that location for a shelter.” This is how they think.

          Reply
          1. Peter

            Meanwhile, when you study the tax data, the democrat “holes” actually subsidize the real problem, i.e. the right-wing “holes” that actually drain the cash away and in a rational world, would have been consolidated into larger entities and no longer allowed to exist on a practical level. LOL

            Reply
    2. Bryce

      How do you expect to keep the savages out?
      I have some ideas.

      Reply
  9. Larry Littlefield

    You are worried Cuomo is pushing to open East Side Access early. I think he might be deferring the opening until after the election.

    The decline of the subway and rising taxes in NYC, combined with all the investment elsewhere, is a bright light command from the Governor to move out of New York City — even if you have ties there. It would be very easy for articles to be written on the original MTA plan for action, how the suburbs got everything, and the city has train cars and signal systems (among other things) that are older on average than when the MTA was formed, and a rapid transit system with fewer stations (since the 3rd Avenue El in the Bronx was closed in 1973). That and the shrinking share of the toll surplus the is spent in the city.

    Note how Cuomo is so keen to blame the pandemic and rising crime starting in 2020 for an exodus of young New Yorkers that got underway in 2015, and represents a success rather than a failure. And remember, Cuomo has won election on the backs of city voters he (like most Democrats) know they can screw because the Republicans are not a sane alternative anymore.

    Knowing city residents value mass transit, they have used it the way the UFT uses lower class sizes. Make promises in exchange for more money, divert the money elsewhere, and then demand still more money for the same thing.

    Then, to, there is the possibility that all this money has been spent and relatively few people will use the massively costly investment when it opens.

    All in all, it may be that the service could be started in early 2022, but Cuomo doesn’t want that.

    Reply
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  11. Pokemon Daily Red

    The depth of this terminal is the detail that stayed with me — 182-foot escalators and lower ceilings will shape the daily passenger experience far more than the marble finishes do. It will be interesting to see how those deep underground retail spaces fare once commuters actually return in numbers.

    Reply
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  13. nano banana 3

    Those 182-foot escalators and the TWA Flight Center–style passageways sound incredible — worth seeing in person before the terminal opens. I’ve been using Nano Banana 3 to mock up before-and-after shots of spaces like this from a plain-language description, which is a neat way to preview a finished look.

    Reply
  14. Manuel Aldrich

    The deterioration of New York City’s subway system and the rising tax burden, coupled with investments being directed elsewhere, sends a strong message from the Governor that people should consider leaving the city, even if they have longstanding ties there. It would be easy to write articles examining the MTA’s original action plan, how suburban areas received most of the benefits, and how many of the city’s train cars and signal systems are older than they were on average when the MTA was established. The city’s rapid transit network also has fewer stations today, following the closure of the Third Avenue Elevated line in the Bronx in 1973. Additionally, a declining proportion of the toll revenue surplus is being allocated to the city. You can also check the fonts styles and NYC fonts at Fancy Font Generator

    Reply
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    Reply
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  17. john

    Those 182-foot escalators being the longest in the MTA system really puts the scale of this project in perspective. It’s wild that the tunnels are dug and tracks are laid but the walls are still bare with only 18 months to go before passengers arrive. The comparison to the TWA Flight Center is an interesting detail too.

    Reply
  18. Cat Clapping

    Those 182-foot escalators are hard to picture until you see people dwarfed beneath them. I rode the old 7 train every morning, and imagining that bare cavern finally becoming a real station gives me goosebumps.

    Reply
  19. henkanya

    Those 182-foot escalators are wild — I remember riding the ones at the Wheaton station on the DC Metro and feeling like I was descending into the earth, so I can only imagine how long that ride will feel. It’s kind of surreal seeing the tunnels and tracks already done while the walls are still bare, though that TWA Flight Center comparison in the passageways totally makes sense from the photos. Hard to believe it’s only 18 months out after all this time.

    Reply
  20. textbrat

    The detail about the two-minute ride up those 182-foot escalators really stuck with me — depth changes how a station feels, not just how long the trip takes. I also appreciated the point about the station feeling more like a transit mall than a neighborhood gateway, since that shapes who actually benefits once it opens. It makes me wonder whether the retail and entrances along Park and Madison will ever make it feel connected to the streets above.

    Reply
  21. Minecraft AI Video Generator

    Good overview of where East Side Access stands ahead of the opening.
    Minecraft AI Video Generator

    Reply
  22. Buble

    Great behind-the-scenes update, it is exciting to see how close the new terminal is getting.
    Buble

    Reply
  23. AI Bathroom Design

    Good to see East Side Access progressing; the new terminal will make commutes much easier.
    AI Bathroom Design

    Reply
  24. Tando

    Fascinating look at East Side Access before opening — the photos of unfinished platforms and the timeline notes make the scale of the project feel real. Big infrastructure builds and small creative tools share one thing: planning the inputs carefully pays off later.

    Reply
  25. twominutedrillgames

    Those 182-foot escalators being the longest in the MTA system really stuck with me — I rode the long ones at the Wheaton station on WMATA once and remember thinking how weird it felt to be on a single flight that long, so I can only imagine what these will feel like. It’s striking that the tunnels and tracks are done but the walls are still bare with 18 months to go; finishes and systems testing always seem to eat up more time than people expect. I appreciated the comparison to the TWA Flight Center too, since those passageways do have that same sweeping look.

    Reply
  26. groktexttospeech

    Those 182-foot escalators really stuck with me—I rode a similarly long one in a deep station abroad and the ride down alone felt like a full minute. Wild to think the tunnels and tracks are done but the walls are still bare with 18 months to go. Curious how the TWA Flight Center comparison holds up once the finishes actually go in.

    Reply
  27. Image to Draw.io

    Fascinating look at the East Side Access construction, the scale of the new terminal is impressive. Image to Draw.io

    Reply
  28. PNG to Hex Converter

    Really useful look at the East Side Access timeline. Tools like PNG to Hex Converter remind me how much of this stuff is about getting the details right.

    Reply
  29. Img2Vid

    Interesting look at how close the new terminal is to opening, the scale underneath Grand Central is hard to picture. Img2Vid

    Reply
  30. ImageDPIChanger

    Great photos of the cavern, it is impressive to see how far the construction has come. ImageDPIChanger

    Reply
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  35. AI font design

    Glad to see the ESA cavern finally taking real station shape after so many years of following it on Second Ave Sagas — it’s easy to forget how raw it was back in 2015 when you’re staring down a projected opening date. The scale of the excavation is the part that always gets me; the photos from those early walkthroughs barely made it look like anything would ever fit down there.

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    Reply
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  37. GPT Images

    Those 182-foot escalators make the scale of the unfinished terminal easier to grasp than the renderings did. I used a couple of the site photos as references while sketching a wider view in GPT Images.

    Reply
  38. Zingpix

    The photos from inside the cavern, especially those escalators, do a lot of the storytelling in this visit. Turning a rough construction reference into a clearer still is the kind of thing Zingpix is built for.

    Reply
  39. Mark Ellison

    Fascinating look at the East Side Access project — those 182-foot escalators are going to be quite a ride for commuters. It’s amazing to see how much behind-the-scenes work goes into making a new terminal a reality. I also came across a useful resource that covers infrastructure stories like this in a clear, practical way.

    Reply
  40. Iris Langford

    The jump from the 2015 visit, a damp unfinished cavern under Grand Central, to these 2021 photos is the most useful part of the piece. The 182-foot escalators under 45th Street will be the longest in the MTA system, but the bare walls and unfinished systems testing make that 18-month passenger target look tight. The note that the arched passageways echo both the TWA Flight Center and Grand Central itself comes through more clearly in the photos than in the budget debates.

    Reply
  41. Pika

    After “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens – Second Ave. Sagas”, I have a better sense of which parts of the process are worth automating. https://pikaai.art/

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  42. Marcus Feld

    Great set of photos. The shot looking down the 182-foot escalators really sells the scale, and you’re right that the arched passageway feels like it borrowed from both Grand Central and the TWA Flight Center. Seeing the bare walls 18 months out is a good reminder how much of a station’s character comes from the finishes and signage at the very end. I’d be curious to see a follow-up from the same angles once it opens, to compare how the space reads with the wayfinding and lighting in place.

    Reply
  43. Krea

    After “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens – Second Ave. Sagas”, I have a better sense of which parts of the process are worth automating. https://krea3.art/

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  44. Kling 3.0 AI Video Generator

    Great piece on East Side Access – the $12B, 20-year saga really highlights NYC infrastructure woes. Cuomo’s promises feel familiar, hope this time they stick. (Also, random but have you tried Kling 3.0 as an ai video generator? I used it to create a quick image to video clip of my commute and it was surprisingly smooth. Totally free daily credits to start, which is wild.) https://king3.online/

    Reply
  45. Ozil Goal

    It’s striking to read how far the East Side Access cavern has come since that 2015 visit—the gap between a damp, unfinished cave and a terminal now 18 months from opening makes the long construction timeline feel real.

    On a completely different note, I personally use a tool called Ozil Goal, and articles about drawn-out infrastructure projects remind me why I keep it in my routine.

    Reply
  46. Rose Armstrong

    The shift from a damp cavern in 2015 to a 350,000 square foot terminal makes the construction feel tangible, but the walk from those deep platforms deserves as much attention as the train ride. Seeing fortnite sprite recently had me thinking about how much navigation shapes an experience. With East Side Access, I wonder how much of the promised time savings survives the trip up to street level, especially with commuting patterns still uncertain.

    Reply
  47. YTtoText

    The photos really help put the scale of East Side Access into perspective. Building a major rail terminal so far beneath Grand Central is an incredible engineering challenge, and the questions about cost, commuter convenience, and long-term ridership make this an especially interesting read. For anyone who wants to save useful information from YouTube videos about major infrastructure projects, YTtoText makes it easier to turn video content into searchable text.

    Reply
  48. fergiebabyai.org

    The photos of those massive 182-foot escalators and bare tunnels really capture the immense scale of the East Side Access project. It makes me imagine the confident stride commuters will need to navigate that cavernous new concourse once it finally opens. If you want to visualize that kind of swagger walk for yourself, you can generate a realistic 15-second AI video from a single photo using Fergie Baby AI Video Generator.

    Reply
  49. Nate from BananaImg

    Great tour. Seeing the cavern finished out with escalators and mezzanines after all those years of photos of raw rock is wild, and your note about how long the escalators really are is a little terrifying. I tried recreating the scale of these spaces with Nano Banana Pro for a transit poster once, and nothing generated comes close to the real photos you shared here.

    Reply
  50. Hotel Lobby AI

    Even with tracks laid and tunnels dug, the bare walls and unfinished systems make the 18-month timeline feel ambitious, especially knowing how MTA projects tend to slip. Use Hotel Lobby AI

    Reply
  51. Narinig Mo Ba

    The detail about the escalators evoking Grand Central’s architecture stuck with me, since it suggests the design is trying to feel continuous with the original terminal rather than like a separate modern station bolted on underneath. Play Narinig Mo Ba

    Reply
  52. Reveedo Blog

    The sheer scale of the empty cavern is striking even now, and it makes me wonder how much of the final passenger experience depends on finishes that aren’t there yet, since bare concrete and signage can only convey so much. Reveedo Blog

    Reply
  53. Size it Up

    Reading about the 182-foot escalators makes me think about accessibility and downtime, since a single failure on a ride that long could create real problems for riders with mobility issues or heavy luggage. Play Size it Up Game

    Reply
  54. Reveedo

    Even with the major construction finished, 18 months of finishes and system testing seems like a tight window, and I wonder how much of that time is buffer versus real work. Use Reveedo Generate images and videos

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  55. Reveedo Text to Video

    Those 182-foot escalators are impressive, but I keep thinking about how they’ll handle crowds during rush hour and whether people will actually walk them when the station is packed. Use Reveedo Txet to Video

    Reply
  56. Reveedo AI Effects

    The comparison to the TWA Flight Center is apt; those curving passageways feel like they’re trying to bridge the old Grand Central aesthetic with something modern, though it’s hard to tell how it will feel once the finishes are in. Use Reveedo AI Effects

    Reply
  57. Image Compressor

    This East Side Access article really makes you think about whether another big infrastructure project is worth it when so much goes over budget. I usually just use this image compressor to shrink photos before uploading them, but honestly, comparing it to how they compressed costs on this project-yeah, that’s a different story. The 160,000 daily riders projection feels pretty optimistic these days. https://lowqualityimage.im/image-compressor

    Reply
  58. My Hotel Lobby AI

    The caption calling the display not yet a departure board neatly captures the in-between state: major construction is complete, but finishes and system testing still lie ahead. The arched passageway above the LIRR tracks, with its bright walls and Grand Central echo, makes the design feel present even inside the work zone. From the team at My Hotel Lobby AI.

    Reply
  59. My ???

    East Side Access connecting commuters directly with the subways is the practical detail that stands out in these photos, since it turns the new terminal into a transfer point rather than just a destination. The dead end under Park Ave also shows that some of the remaining work is about completing those links, not just finishes. From the team at My ???.

    Reply
  60. AMV Trade Buddy

    The photo credits to Benjamin Kabak on nearly every frame make this read as a visual walkthrough rather than a news update. The scrum atop the escalators and the survey looking down under 45th Street show officials inspecting a space that is already shaped but not yet a working station. It is a useful way to see what 18 months of finishes and testing actually look like. From the team at AMV Trade Buddy.

    Reply
  61. Kaomoji

    The detail that stuck with me is the 182-foot escalator bank – the longest in the system – because renderings never convey how disorienting a ride that deep feels in person. The comparison to the TWA Flight Center is apt; those bare passageways already have a mid-century shape, and it will be interesting to see how much of that survives the finishes and signage. Eighteen months of system testing sounds generous until you remember how much of it is integration work passengers never see.

    Off-topic, but I keep a kaomoji copy and paste page bookmarked for the reactions a plain “wow” does not cover – text faces survive copy-paste into forums better than images do. (???)

    Reply
  62. pinpointanswertoday.io

    The two minute ride up 182 feet is the detail that reframes the whole project for me: depth changes the daily experience more than the marble finishes will. Reading each new chapter of this saga has become a morning routine of its own, right alongside the quick daily word puzzle I solve at pinpointanswertoday.io before opening the news, and both reward paying attention to small structural details.

    Reply
  63. Qwen Image

    After “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens – Second Ave. Sagas”, I have a better sense of which parts of the process are worth automating. https://qwenimage.art/

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  64. Picsart

    After “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens – Second Ave. Sagas”, I have a better sense of which parts of the process are worth automating. https://picsart.pro/

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  65. CutoutPro

    After “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens – Second Ave. Sagas”, I have a better sense of which parts of the process are worth automating. https://cutoutpro.org/

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  66. a2oliteneon.com

    Fascinating look at the scale of this project — those 182-foot escalators are mind-boggling. As someone who experiments with AI visual tools, I love seeing how massive infrastructure gets documented before the public arrives. If you ever want to add a creative twist to site photos, A2O LITE NEON AI turns two still images into a synchronized AI dance video.

    Reply
  67. playzipgame

    The 182-foot escalator bank is the part of this that will decide whether East Side Access feels like an upgrade or a transfer penalty. A two-minute ride standing still, times two, eats a big chunk of the time saved over Penn, and MTA escalator maintenance is exactly the wrong place to bet. I also share your worry about opening before systems testing is done — Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway is the precedent nobody wants repeated. Nice to see the arched passageways, though; that detail reads much more Grand Central than the budget documents do.

    Reply
  68. Doublz1

    Remarkable how a project conceived in the 1960s and designed in the 1990s finally nears completion, though holding one consistent vision across decades is rare. In a much smaller way, I value Generate Consistent Game Assets for keeping every sprite, animation and icon stylistically coherent within a single project — its own quiet marathon.

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  69. nanobanana2-lite

    Great content! I often need nice visuals for my projects, and https://nanobanana2-lite.io helps me generate high-quality AI images quickly. Really handy tool for creators!

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  70. AI Translate Video

    Thanks for sharing this useful post! If you work with multilingual video content, https://ai-translate-video.com is amazing for video localization and editing text on images.

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  71. Daniel Morales

    Those 182-foot escalators still amaze me every time I ride them. Reading this now, after the terminal opened, is a good reminder of how long the project took. I recently used https://kimi-k31.com to summarize the old MTA capital plan documents and the cost overruns are even wilder in context.

    Reply
  72. Nano Banana

    I was looking for more information about Nano Banana Pro and found this site useful. The content gives a clear overview of the tool and its features, making it easier to understand what it can be used for. You can also check the Nano Banana Pro guide for more details.

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  73. Wasm Arcade

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  74. Krillion Game

    Really grateful you shared this. A valuable read for sure. Try the viral reverse trivia game Noillirk mode, where obvious mainstream answers score the highest points.

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  75. Krillion Game

    Really grateful you shared this. A valuable read for sure. Try the viral reverse trivia game Noillirk mode, where obvious mainstream answers score the highest points.

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  76. pixel art generator

    Pixel Art Generator Turn any photo into clean retro pixel art with a simple browser workflow—drop in a PNG, JPG, or WebP, shrink it to a 16, 32, 64, or 128-pixel grid, and fine-tune the color count until the look is right. Everything runs locally on your device with no uploads or sign-up, and you can export watermark-free PNGs at up to 8× with transparency preserved, which makes it handy for avatars, game-art mood boards, and retro-style social posts.

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  77. Krillion Game

    Thanks for sharing this — really enjoyed reading it! Play the fast-paced trivia elimination game Puffer Party Krillion online, where you name category words and pass the ticking pufferfish before it explodes.

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  78. Krillion Game

    Thanks for sharing this — really enjoyed reading it! Play the fast-paced trivia elimination game Puffer Party Krillion online, where you name category words and pass the ticking pufferfish before it explodes.

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  79. Krillion Game

    Such a thoughtful post — thanks for sharing your perspective. Play the daily seven-question ocean trivia dive with the free Krillion game online. Obscure answers sink your submarine deeper.

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  80. Daniel Kim

    Great look inside the project at that stage. I went digging through old MTA capital program PDFs to compare the original timelines, and since most were scanned images I ran them through https://ocrzero.com to make them searchable. The gap between the early estimates and the final opening date is wild.

    Reply
  81. FLUX 3 Max AI

    Helpful context, thanks. For people moving from what to consider to choosing something concrete, FLUX 3 Max is one more reference I would add.

    Reply
  82. seedream 6

    Fascinating look inside East Side Access before it opened. The scale of the caverns under Grand Central is hard to picture from the street. Your photos inspired me to sketch a cutaway of the station levels with seedream 6, which finally made the depth make sense to me.

    Reply
  83. nanobanana2-lite

    The detail that struck me most is how the 182-foot escalators, the longest in the MTA system, will take two minutes just to reach the surface from 140 feet below Grand Central. That kind of vertical commute adds real time to every trip, and given the agency’s shaky escalator maintenance record, I wonder how reliable these will be during rush hour. The comparison to the TWA Flight Center and the arched passageways sounds visually impressive, though the low ceilings and lack of directional cues underground seem like design tradeoffs worth watching. If the MTA wants to visualize how these deep station interiors might look once finished, tools like https://nanobanana2-lite.io could help conceptualize the passenger experience before opening day.

    Reply
  84. AI Photo Animator

    The before-and-after contrast in that cavern stuck with me — I still picture the damp, unfinished version from 2015, so the idea of it being 18 months from opening a terminal is a strange shift.

    I had a smaller version of that recently with a scanned family portrait: I put it into AnimatePhoto AI, typed a slight camera push, and got back a short clip where the expression changes just enough to feel less static. It’s an ai image to video generator that runs in the browser, and the reference-clip motion transfer was handy for matching a small pan I had in mind.

    Reply
  85. echoryte.com

    The short caption noting that much work remains is the most revealing line in the post, since it follows photos of a space that is clearly built but still far from open. That restraint keeps the 18-month timeline from reading like a victory lap. From the team at Echoryte.

    Reply
  86. iccid number

    Fascinating look at the depth and design of the new terminal. The 182-foot escalators and the comparison to Grand Central’s aesthetic really highlight how ambitious this project is, even as the opening timeline and cost overruns remain concerns.

    Reply
  87. Alex Morgan

    The two-visit contrast is what carries this piece: the 2015 and 2021 walks through the same site make the depth and the 182-foot escalators feel concrete instead of abstract, and the TWA Flight Center comparison gives the design a reference point readers can picture. Ending on the open questions about retail space and how the terminal will actually run keeps it from reading like a press release. That grounded, show-the-work style is close to No Filter Fighters, a free browser 2D fighting fan game inspired by the sitcom Martin, made by TDHampton Productions, with no download needed — its premise is stated plainly and the rest is left to play. Of the open questions, which one matters most for daily riders: the retail mix or the operating pattern?

    Reply
  88. export alpha

    The progression in these photos really highlights how cavernous and complex the East Side Access terminal is—especially seeing the 182-foot escalators take shape far below Grand Central. When working on video walk-throughs and overlaying transit motion graphics or isolated footage into motion editors, handling clean transparency is usually the tricky part. For anyone putting together explainers or creative clips of large-scale spaces like this, export alpha is great for pulling transparent background video into ProRes 4444 MOV or WebM with real alpha channels intact.

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  89. YouTube video summarizer

    The scale of East Side Access is remarkable—especially the enormous escalators, deep tunnels, and years of work hidden beneath Grand Central. Projects like this are much easier to appreciate when you can see the spaces and hear the people explaining how they came together. If you’re watching a YouTube video about the station or other major infrastructure projects, https://summarizeyoutubevideos.com can turn it into a quick AI summary, key points, timestamped chapters, and a transcript. It’s free, requires no signup or extension, and can also transcribe videos without captions.

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  90. AI Rap Video

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  91. Tiny Desk Meme

    182-foot escalators as the longest in the MTA, Cuomo in the scrum, 18 months out — Kabak’s photos are the reporting. Passageways that already look like a station are the progress check. I still want the rider path from 45th, not the podium shot.

    Reply
  92. Krea 3

    The 182-foot escalators under 45th Street are the image that sticks — Cuomo on the scrum, Kabak shooting down the shaft. Calling them the longest in the MTA system 18 months before opening is the kind of detail ESA coverage actually needs. The passenger-path photos do more than another funding-timeline paragraph.

    Reply
  93. Japanese Name

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  94. GPT Image 2.6

    Your post is quite inspiring. https://gptimage26.io/ can help turn your ideas into images. Start with a text prompt or a reference image, then generate visual content and refine the composition, text, objects, and details. It also supports fast generation, precise editing, and outputs such as GIFs and SVGs.

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  95. Z Video Online

    Those 182-foot escalators are the image that sticks — Cuomo on the landing does not even convey how deep the cavern sits under 45th. Eighteen months out, the photos already make the terminal feel like a different railroad from the rest of the LIRR.

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  96. Dialed GG

    Dialed GG Play a fast and addictive online color memory game where you memorize colors, recreate them with precision, and challenge yourself to see how accurately your eyes and memory can match every shade.

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  97. Alex Morgan

    The tour report makes the scale of the place concrete: the 182-foot escalators, the new terminal taking shape underground, and the LIRR service that will finally bring those trains into Grand Central. Eighteen months out, the piece reads less like a preview and more like a progress report – the structure is there, and the question is what the finished station will feel like to use day to day. That kind of walkthrough is exactly the video people watch with subtitles on: the Dual Subtitles Generator turns a local video file into a bilingual subtitle track, with both language tracks visible side by side in the preview, so the creator can verify every line before downloading the SRT files. Of everything in the tour, which detail best shows how close the terminal was to finished – the escalators, or the concourse itself?

    Reply
  98. gomotion

    Great post on “Inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens”—clear and practical.

    Reply
  99. 3D Logo Maker

    Nice summary of the landscape. rotating 3D Logo came up in my own research on the same topic, so I am leaving it here in case it is useful to other readers.

    Reply
  100. Merge JPG

    Appreciate the practical framing. I have been keeping a short list of related tools, and Merge JPG is currently on it if that helps anyone going further.

    Reply
  101. RenderAlpha

    Fascinating look behind the scenes – projects of this scale rarely document their final 18 months this openly. The photo comparison of the same platform across years is striking.

    Reply
  102. AlphaPublish

    The article’s photos of East Side Access’s vast, arched passageways and sterile, bright finishes evoke a sense of architectural spectacle, but they also highlight how much the experience of transit depends on orientation and visual cues deep underground. Imagining a commuter’s first walk through that disorienting depth, it’s easy to see how digital wayfinding or immersive video previews—like those used in architectural visualizations—could help familiarize riders with the space before arrival. For creators building such tools, removing a video’s background to composite a seamless walkthrough into existing platforms would be essential, and a tool like AlphaPublish could allow for quick extraction of short clips with transparent layers, enabling smoother integration into interactive guides. However, since only brief segments can be processed and edge quality depends on source resolution, any resulting preview would require careful framing to maintain clarity.

    Reply
  103. SwapBackdrop

    The article’s description of East Side Access as a deep, sterile terminal with long escalators and bright, impersonal finishes highlights how modern transit infrastructure often prioritizes function over human experience. This focus on controlled environments underground—where lighting, movement, and spatial perception are tightly managed—parallels the challenges video creators face when repurposing footage shot in constrained or unremarkable settings. For instance, if someone were to document the station’s construction over time and later want to reuse that footage for different presentations, they could isolate the subject using a tool like SwapBackdrop to replace the bare tunnels or concrete walls with more engaging backdrops. This would allow one performance—say, a voiceover or demonstration—to be adapted across multiple contexts without reshooting, as long as the original clip meets the input requirements. Still, the quality of the cutout would depend heavily on contrast and motion, just as the station’s atmosphere depends on how light travels down those long escalators.

    Reply
  104. AI Lyrics Changer

    The article highlights how East Side Access, a project decades in the making, reflects a top-down vision of transit shaped by political priorities rather than evolving urban needs—much like how a fixed recording can feel outdated once circumstances change. This makes me think of creators who have a nearly perfect audio track but need to correct just one misheard or outdated line, much like revising a long-standing infrastructure plan in response to new realities. In such cases, the AI Lyrics Changer allows precise editing of a short vocal passage within an existing recording, letting users replace only the necessary segment and compare AI-generated takes against the original. It’s not about rebuilding the whole song, just making a targeted update—useful when the context has shifted, but the rest of the performance still holds value.

    Reply
  105. graphpaperonline

    I absolutely love reading about the engineering marvels behind NYC infrastructure. It’s fascinating how the sheer depth of the East Side Access terminal—especially with those 17 stories of subterranean structure—represents such a feat of modern construction. It really highlights the complexity involved in expanding the subway system in such a dense urban environment.

    Speaking of precision and structure, I recently found myself needing a reliable tool for some layout planning and drafting work, and I was impressed by how intuitive this free online graph paper generator was. It’s a great reminder that whether you’re dealing with deep subway tunnels or just simple grid layouts, having the right structured tools makes all the difference. Thanks for sharing such an in-depth look at this major project!

    Reply

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