The $7 billion plan to bring the LIRR into Grand Central might relieve crowding at Penn Station by so much that Metro-North service will finally be expanded to the West Side of Manhattan.
Plans to bring Metro-North trains directly into Penn Station have been kicking around for decades, but officials are making a renewed push because of the East Side Access project.
That project — which will bring the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central Terminal as early as 2016 — is expected to severely ease overcrowding at Penn Station, potentially freeing up room for Metro-North trains.
The MTA has begun a federal environmental assessment to study bringing the Hudson and New Haven lines to Penn Station on existing tracks and adding four Metro-North stations in The Bronx, according to the MTA.
“The review includes potential stations along Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line in the vicinity of Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester and Hunts Point,” said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan.
On Monday the MTA held a meeting with Bronx politicians, community leaders and various stakeholders to discuss the plan at Borough President Ruben Diaz’s office.
“The reaction was uniformly positive,” said John DeSio, a spokesman for Diaz.
The MTA said it could not put a price tag on the plan until the environmental study was complete in 2013.
The push for an expansion of Metro-North into Penn Station has been an appealing option in part because the tracks to be used are already in place — and in continual use by Amtrak.
At one time, advocates said the expansion would include five new train stations in Manhattan and The Bronx, requiring new platforms, staircases, pedestrian overpasses, elevators and possibly parking areas.
Those same plans had envisioned running Hudson Line trains to Penn Station with two new stations on the West Side and New Haven Line trains with three new stations in The Bronx.