⁴ᴷ MTA Long Island Railroad: Grand Central-Madison Opening Day - Grand Central Direct Action

After years, decades even of planning and prioritized construction, the "East Side Access" project, which is a connection within the City Terminal Zone that connects the LIRR to the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, leading into Grand Central for connections with other major connections above the brand new terminal itself, Grand Central-Madison. On January 25th 2023, the official debut for the terminal was launched, and at 10:45 AM the first set of M9's had officially made its trip out of Grand Central-Madison, running the Grand Central Direct service, which is the temporary exclusive shuttle service that runs between Jamaica and Grand Central-Madison, making both local and express stops within the City Terminal Zone only. Service for the Grand Central Direct on launch day was restricted to M9 cars only, helping the image of a modern day theme with the newest fleet on the railroad running for it. Two 8 car sets had been assigned to the short line, running back and forth periodically and waiting for approximately 20-30 minutes in both termini. Service was also only restricted to the lower level platforms, with trains randomly entering and terminating between sections and the 2 tracks within them, and the top level remaining vacant, however a third set of M9's brought into the top level of tracks 203 and 204, not for service but just being left for layover, as well as a good look and image to how service on both levels may look like. Passenger service on launch day was rather tame, making for clean empty shots of some platforms that did not experience passenger service at times, and therefore giving for clean, surreal looks at the brand new Grand Central-Madison station, something that is not usually seen with opening day extensions from the MTA, especially within the subway. #LIRR
0:00 - Intro
0:49 - Exploration and Showcasing
5:29 - Grand Central Direct Action 1
8:03 - Grand Central Direct Full Ride
24:27 - "East Side Access" Only Ride (Grand Central - Jamaica)
31:49 - Grand Central Direct Action 2
Video Clips Taken: January, 25th, 2023.
Enjoy!

[@Emperor_NYC]

I believe I made a typo at the beginning of the video, so I'll correct it here (and in the description)
The consists of M9's were not 6 cars, but in fact two 8 car sets. Sorry for the confusion!

[@TheBronxFanner]

Great video EON

[@calvinh2196]

It's nice to see the Grand Central Terminal expanded now that we have two rail services meeting each other but requires a lot of walking and through escalators. Also, the terminal did give a chance to see more M3s in-service but still want to get the rides while I can as they can be gone soon but not right now.

[@Emperor_NYC]

Absolutely. Gotta be grateful for extensions when they actually do get finished!

[@Kitsune9063]

Very nice