US | Wed Nov 4, 2015 3:55pm EST

In caverns deep below N.Y. streets, train terminal taking shape

NEW YORK | BY JOSEPH AX

Fifteen stories beneath midtown Manhattan, hundreds of workers are slowly converting massive subterranean chambers into a new terminal for the Long Island Railroad, the United States' busiest commuter rail system.

Two enormous caverns, each several city blocks long, will house eight tracks and platforms, serving an estimated 162,000 customers a day, officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said during a tour of the planned station on Wednesday.

A $10.2 billion project, known as East Side Access, will divert some Long Island Railroad trains from their current terminus at overcrowded Pennsylvania Station on the West Side to Grand Central. It will shorten riders' commute to New York by 30 to 40 minutes a day, said Michael Horodniceanu, who heads up capital construction for the MTA.

"This is the largest transit project in the country," said Horodniceanu as he stood in what will eventually be a 350,000-square-foot (33,000-square-meter) passenger concourse.

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