two weeks ago you might have seen this video I kid you not everyone with a camera was at Grand
Central today and that was me understating it yes when Grand Central Madison opened I had expected
press to be there maybe a vlogger or two but every corner I turned there'd seemed to be a person
with a camera it was as if B H came to Grand Central to demo all their cameras and gimbals
there was even a person I kid you not had a vintage accordion camera
this opening was such a big deal that it even made the Swiss news
so why is Grand Central Madison such a big deal what does this mean for New York City
and where exactly is Grand Central Madison in the scheme of everything and that is what we're going
to talk about today welcome to Urban caffeine my name is Thea and you're watching a channel
that breaks down urban life in New York city so subscribe and hit that notification Bell
so you won't miss future videos and also hit that like button let's start by talking about
the layout of it all Grand Central terminal is located on 42nd and smack in the middle of Park
Avenue next to the summit or one Vanderbilt the Chrysler Building the MetLife building and not
too far from Bryant Park there's a lot going on with this building there are shops restaurants
and there are even tennis courts but we're not going to go over all the amenities of
this building that is not what this video is for this video is all about the trains Grand Central
terminal Grand Central Station and Grand Central Madison can all be accessed through this building
but they each reference different commuter lines Grand Central terminal is actually the building
itself there are several ways to enter this building you can enter it through the front on
42nd Street on the side here and on the side here the side entrance is all the way over at Lexington
Avenue because this building which is the Hyatt is somewhat flush to the Grand Central Terminal
building on the map it looks like there's a separating Street here that runs from Park
Avenue there is it's a ramp that runs cars along the balcony level of Grand Central Building Grand
Central also has direct access to MetLife and the Hyatt and there are also tunnels to these five
blocks the Chrysler and the gray bar building and there are also entrances at 47th and Madison and
48th and park with how complex the Grand Central Terminal building is I'm probably missing some
entrances so if you know some comment down below as far as trains go the tracks used by the Metro
North trains are underground north of it and you access the tracks and platforms through the main
Concourse of the building the tracks used to be exposed but as Manhattan got more and more dense
the tracks were covered up by the city fun fact at one point they wanted to build a skyscraper
on top of the building of course New York had a fit over this even lady Kennedy put her weight
into the matter you may or may not be familiar with this famous interior I mean it's only ever
been in half a hundred movies but when you're in the main Concourse you'll have departure boards
on one side and entrances to the tracks on the other and it's through here you get to the tracks
if you go down one level to the Dining Concourse there will be more entrances to the tracks
this is because there are two levels of train tracks for the Metro North trains
Grand Central Station is an underground subway station just south of Grand Central
Terminal it's serviced by the seven train from Queens and a 456 to and from the Bronx
in Brooklyn this subway station in reality has many entrances along the street but
some of them tunneling to Grand Central Terminal building giving direct access to the Metro North
so where is Grand Central Madison when you're inside Grand Central Terminal if
you go down to the lower Concourse you will find escalators pointing you to the Madison Concourse
the Madison Concourse spans five blocks underground there's another access point
outside of Grand Central Terminal and there are also Street elevators I could be missing
some but you get the idea and The Concourse is parallel to Madison Avenue if you haven't
gathered by now the name Grand Central Madison is in relation to Madison Avenue however the
tracks and platform of the LIRR are all the way over here and not only that there are several
dozen feet below the double decker tracks of the Metro North this is because of the
logistics when it came to blasting these tunnels open if it were higher it would
interrupt the service of the Metro North during construction since these tunnels are
so far down there are long escalators that lead passengers to the tracks and platforms
foreign
these escalators are currently the longest in the city
but if you hate escalators as much as I do they do have elevators
just like Grand Central terminal's Main Concourse has departure boards
and ticket agents Grand Central Madison also has an area for these amenities
and just like Grand Central Terminal has food and retail
shops Grand Central Madison will also have some Along The Concourse
get it but why indeed I can give you four reasons prior to today Penn Station was the
only lir station in Manhattan and this was terrible because if you were traveling from
Long Island to Manhattan your only option was to arrive at Penn Station it turns out about half
of the commuters on the LIRR actually need to get to the Grand Central Area this is mostly for work
because a lot of businesses and a lot of them are corporate businesses are located in the area near
Grand Central Terminal and that was a problem because there was no direct connection between
Penn Station and Grand Central your options were either two Subway rides or a 20-minute walk I
don't know about you but I think neither are good options for a daily commute by having the option
to arrive directly at Grand Central this saves commuters 30 to 45 minutes of travel time and if
they were paying for the subway before that's an annual Savings of roughly thirteen hundred
dollars just imagine saving 45 minutes on your your commute think of what you can do with an
extra 30 to 45 minutes of Life think of the sleep that you'll get as mentioned earlier trains going
to and from the north which are part of the Metro North Railroad terminate at Grand Central since
Penn Station for a while was the only station of the LIRR in Manhattan if you wanted to travel
like this you would have needed to switch at Penn Station but now with Grand Central Madison people
can easily transfer between the LIRR and Metro North and since about half of the commuters using
the LIRR will go to Grand Central that reduces the burden at Penn Station giving it capacity
to take on trains heading north this Public Works project is underway and is called the Penn Station
access it will extend the Metro North Line to Penn Station making it quicker to get to the
Bronx when this project will be complete can be anyone's guess Grand Central Madison was decades
in the making conversations started around the 1950s maybe the 19th 60s and construction
only happened within the last 15 years and the construction alone took 15 years but you know
what Penn Station access is a different project with a different set of circumstances than that
of Grand Central Madison so it's hard to compare the two but knowing how New York is New York and
after reading this book it's gonna take a while and lastly one of the top 10 largest airports
in the country will have more commute options into the city if you've seen this video I made
which is linked in the description I listed all the options to get from JFK to Manhattan one of
the options was the LIRR to Penn Station while the LIRR is a fast option once you get to Penn Station
you still have to figure out how to get from Penn Station to your final destination if you use the
subway your options are the ace and one two three with the added option of Grand Central suddenly
you have access to the 456 and 7 trains there are criticisms out out there on Grand Central Madison
like the number of tracks the lack of seats and the height of the tunnels I'm not one to criticize
because after reading this book and watching this movie I've come to understand that there's more
to the story of how something is built versus the actual product that we see and this goes the same
for products on the market YouTube videos ads that we see on TV there's a lot that goes into
any project that viewers don't see in the end what I do know is that this station is going
to be a game changer for a lot of people using the Long Island Railroad and it's a step towards
improving public transportation in general for millions of people yes it took 11 billion dollars
and almost 15 years to finish but considering New York is not Europe this is a big win besides the
more and more we keep making infrastructure like this the cheaper less time consuming it
becomes that's because we gain construction and operational knowledge with every project finished
because hopefully we learn from our mistakes so that's something to think about if if you
want my commentary on this video and personal Vlogs about New York City I post not once but
twice a week on patreon so check out patreon.com Urban caffeine thank you to all current patrons
for your continued support until next time thank you so much for watching and happy new yorking