Metro-North trains to and from Westchester could be coming to a train station on the Upper West Side in the next few years, and politicians are starting to line up behind the plan.
The first part of the train extension would take riders from Penn Station up through Queens and the Bronx to meet up with the New Haven line. The second part would run from Penn Station up through the Upper West Side and into Westchester on the Hudson line. We first wrote about it in February.
Here’s what’s new: the Bronx borough president’s office released a report this month that said that the extension could bring an additional $1 billion into Bronx businesses. Those kinds of numbers are helping ramp up political pressure to get the new stations built:
“Bronx lawmakers used the report’s findings to call on Metro-North’s parent agency, the MTA, to include in the agency’s next five-year capital program money to build four new Bronx station stops in Co-op City, Morris Park, Hunts Point and Parkchester,” Newsday reported.
The whole project could cost $1.2 billion, a comptroller’s report said. The MTA is considering whether to put the project in its next capital plan, and pressure from Bronx politicians could presumably help make that happen.
The MTA has said it will reach out to Upper West Siders as it gets closer to developing plans. The earliest the trains would start running is probably 2019. Check out the map showing where the trains would run below. We’ll keep you updated as this exciting idea moves forward (or doesn’t).
Photo by sonjaloves.
Realistically for a NUMBER of different reasons I give this about a 1% chance of actually happening.
If this actually happened, I would do back flips. This is so necessary.
From the map, the “upper” west side station looks like it’s at about 59th St – no advantage for anyone who actually lives or works on the UWS. The next stop, 125th St, is sensible, but again, not the UWS.
True, but the MTA says it hasn’t determined the final location. The 59th street dot is from an older plan.
If they take out the police speed trap office at 96th st, they’d have room for it.
This can’t happen soon enough!
The current shuttle connection to GCT adds a lot of travel time.