[Music] can you believe it's December it's been quite a year since it's the holidays this month
I want to do something different I usually do a video every Saturday but instead of that we are
going to do 12 videos in the next 12 days that's right you are going to be seeing my
face for 12 consecutive days and we're calling this the 12 days of Transit it's a series where
we're going to look at 12 different facets of transit in New York we're going to talk about
some notable stations some non mainstream Transit options and an interesting bus rout along the way
this series is going to showcase the diversity of how people move around in this city make sure
you're subscribed so you won't miss any of these videos and I will have a link to the playlist
in the description below so you can follow along and without further Ado let's start with day one
for day one we are going to cover Grand Central so there's Grand Central terminal Grand Central
Station and Grand Central Madison Grand Central Terminal refers to the Metro North Railroad that
is a commuter rail that travels from New York all the way to the Bronx Upstate New York and
Connecticut and Grand Central Station refers to the subway that travels within New York City and
Grand Central Madison is the terminal for the Long Island Railroad which travels east of New
York City to Long Island the subway the Metro North Railroad and the Long Island Railroad all
converge into this area of the city behind me is the Grand Central Terminal building if you
look at it from this street it seems like that's it that's the terminal itself but there's a lot
going on underground as you'll see later so let's go check it out and head over [Music]
inside [Music]
as you can see this place has a lot of holiday decor and Grand Central does this seasonally
during the 4th of July you'll see a lot of flags and since we're in the holiday season
you'll see a lot of holiday decor and it looks like there's holiday Fair going on behind me is
the New York Transit Museum and you can get all sorts of Subway merch from this store but the
Grand Central Terminal building is Iconic it's known for its history and the architecture in
the ceiling you could see this mural yes it's a gorgeous mural but what's interesting about
it is that the constellation that's depicted in the mural is incorrect it's actually backwards
and also the relation of each constellation to one another is also inaccurate but it's been
kept that way and that's just an interesting thing that you kind of like about this mural
this building has had its ups and downs there was a time where it opened and it was Grand and
Elites came here to party and then back in the' 70s it started to wear down it was dingy it was
falling apart and they were about to demolish this building but there was some Grassroots efforts and
a lot of organizations a lot of influential people chimed in to save Grand Central Terminal this was
because right before that they demolished Penn Station it's a tragedy that they did
that and to this day people are still lamenting the loss of the Penn Station building but Grand
Central had its Revival this is how it would have looked like when it first opened two of
the most iconic things about this building is one the mural in the ceiling and the clock in
the center the clock is actually very accurate it's tuned to the US Naval observatories time
there are two wings at Grand Central behind me is the East and I'm at the west sng and
there's an Apple store here people are kind of using it as a public library to browse the
internet if your phone dies and you need the Internet really quick you can come up to the
Apple Store also the restaurant here are great at least right now it's the beginning of the day
they've just cleaned it can get a little gross if it's right before they clean it but most of
the time you can rely on the bathrooms at Grand Central during the time when Grand Central was
falling apart it was really dingy it's dark it there's no light coming into this terminal and
it's just some place that people want to get in and get out quickly there was a Revival but
they left a small patch on the ceiling just as a reminder of how bad things were the ceiling was
practically black because of the accumulation of pollution and smoke we're now headed to
Grand Central Madison and there are different ways to get to it there are entrances outside
on street level but right now I'm the lower Concourse and there's an entrance right behind
me
so I'm walking down this interesting hallway
and they're planning to put in some shops but right now it's just window
dressing Grand Central Madison is very new it's the newest addition to Grand Central
and it runs parallel to Madison Avenue and it's very important it's a big deal because before the
Long Island Railroad only went to Penn Station so let say you were traveling from upstate and
you wanted to go to Long Island you'd have to take the metronor to Grand Central Terminal
then commute to Penn Station and there's no easy transfer to Penn Station there are other reasons
why this station is a big deal and why the LR coming here is something that a lot of people
are anticipating and I explained all this in this video check that out link is in the description
behind you artwork by yayoi Kosama she's an amazing artist I admire her work a lot the New
York lovester she's done an exhibit at New York Botanical Garden at one point she's done these
Infinity rooms that people just line for blocks just to get in and I wouldn't be surprised if she
will do more exhibits in New York but her work is permanently displayed here at Grand Central
Madison
this place also has the tallest escalator so far in the city you know some people avoid touching
the rails on the escalator and I can see why I'm curious do any of you hold on to the escalator
rail whether or not it's dirty or avoid it at all costs comment down below and it's very empty
right now it's 10: in the morning or 10:30 in the morning so it's past rush hour so you can
see the station's very empty but it's really nice it's very clean modern and what I would expect of
a New York station so you know how they always said there's a third rail you can actually see
it it's so bright and here that you can actually see the third rail there's one rail there's two
rails there's third rail so we've covered Grand Central Terminal that has the Metro North Railroad
and Grand Central Madison that has the Long Island Railroad these two are the two commuter rails of
New York I like how they're so different in look from one another the Grand Central Terminal has
a classic look from the building itself to the signs and here at Grand Central Madison
just below it it's very modern and clean and just completely different the problem I see with Grand
Central Madison is there needs to be something for accessibility it's there's not a lot of stairs I
could say that but you have to walk miles to get from Grand Central Terminal to the trains
of the LR it literally goes goes from 42nd Street right behind me all the way to 48th Street that's
6 Street if you have daddy long legs then that would be 6 minutes if you have short legs like
me it would probably take like 10 minutes to walk that in terms of ramps and using Wheelchairs and
Walkers it's fine but just the length the length of the corridor what about people that do walk but
they have bum knees or just people who can't walk very far those are the two commuter rails that New
York has that you could find here at Grand Central if you're a regular Rider of the Long Island
Railroad or the Metro North Railroad comment down below and talk about your experience do you love
it do you hate it do you love hate it comment down below so that's a wrap for day one of this 12 days
of Transit series make sure you're subscribed and you hit that notification Bell so you won't miss
the other 11 videos and I have a link to the playlist in the description below so you could
follow along don't forget it's the holiday season so if you're looking for some last minute stocking
stuffers or gifts I have a promo going on at shop. Urban caffeine.com patreons and YouTube members
get 15% off for as long as they're a member so if you want continuous discounts at the urban
caffeine store check out patreon.com/crashcourse or the join button of this Channel with that
thank you all so much for watching and until the next video Happy new yorking