Passenger Trains > Jackie Onassis and Grand Central Terminal

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/nyregion/kent-l-barwick-on-saving-grand-central-with-help-of-jacqueline-kennedy-onassis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

Thank you Jackie...

A fine lady in many ways.

This reminds me of the 40th Anniversary celebration at Los Angeles Union Station in 1979. It was held because many observers of the LA railroad scene weren't sure there would be a 50th. Now we have dozens of Metrolink trains, Surfliners going up and down the coast, a few long distance trains, "elevated" trains coming in on tracks 1 and 2, and "electric trains in the basement" (Metro subway).

Yes, thank you Jackie! GCT is part of Camelot!

Purely from a useage standpoint, GCT is underutilized compared to the much-busier Penn Station. It's too bad BOTH stations couldn't have been saved and preserved. Razing Penn Station's terminal building was one of the biggest bonehead moves of the twentieth century.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Yes, thank you Jackie! GCT is part of Camelot!
>
> Purely from a useage standpoint, GCT is
> underutilized compared to the much-busier Penn
> Station. It's too bad BOTH stations couldn't have
> been saved and preserved. Razing Penn Station's
> terminal building was one of the biggest bonehead
> moves of the twentieth century.


Concur--and it was almost singularly responsible for the birth of the historic preservation movement on a national scale....

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.

God Bless her.........

LAUPT's 75th birthday is but 16 months away and it has caught the attention of illustrious LA City Councilman, Tom LaBonge. He has been lobbying METRO, Union Station's current parent, to get them to celebrate it in a big way. Let's keep our fingers crossed that LAUPT's 75th birthday will also be one to remember!



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/13 13:19 by railwaybaron.

That noise you just heard was the ghost of Pennsylvania Station rolling over in its grave.

melalbert Wrote:
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> That noise you just heard was the ghost of
> Pennsylvania Station rolling over in its grave.


There are a few ghosts of Pennsylvania Station still among us. The eagles are on pedestals at several corners of the property.


Grand Central Terminal's restoration is amazing. I can remember using the terminal in the early 1970s, long before the food courts and upscale fish market and Apple store. The lower level "100s gates" were badly lighted, scary, with bums emerging from the shadows. The rest rooms were less than pristine.

MetroNorth's huge investment in this terminal is just astonishing. Remembering what it was back then, and what it is now is just amazing. It's clean, busy, a magnet for people to stop by and grab food for dinner, a meal at the Michael Jordan restaurant, or a drink at the Campbell Apartment, etc. Just amazing.

I vaguely remember Jackie O getting involved with saving GCT. It mad the National news

CB

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> melalbert Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That noise you just heard was the ghost of
> > Pennsylvania Station rolling over in its grave.
>
>
> There are a few ghosts of Pennsylvania Station
> still among us. The eagles are on pedestals at
> several corners of the property.
>
>
> Grand Central Terminal's restoration is amazing. I
> can remember using the terminal in the early
> 1970s, long before the food courts and upscale
> fish market and Apple store. The lower level "100s
> gates" were badly lighted, scary, with bums
> emerging from the shadows. The rest rooms were
> less than pristine.
>
> MetroNorth's huge investment in this terminal is
> just astonishing. Remembering what it was back
> then, and what it is now is just amazing. It's
> clean, busy, a magnet for people to stop by and
> grab food for dinner, a meal at the Michael Jordan
> restaurant, or a drink at the Campbell Apartment,
> etc. Just amazing.

Grand Central is truly a "welcoming train station" as opposed to its counterpart of NYP. And as someone pointed out, it is completely underutilized today, but that's only because it has been transformed into a commuter station, not commuter and intercity like NYP is. Hopefully by having the "East Side Access" project complete, it will help to move some LIRR trains over to Grand Central and free up some slots at NYP, but I am not going to hold my breath on that, as the LIRR is growing more every year. The best that could have happened was connecting NYP with Grand Central and then looping things (somehow) into Sunnyside Yard).

The difference between commuter trains and long distance trains is? OK...the difference is the passengers. Commuters are on the run looking to, "get there" and "get home". The long distance train passenger while are interested in getting there, their mission is not as singular. It's the station that's different. NYP works fine for commuters but as an intercity option, it does not. NYP is not a "destination" as someone put it above. NYP is an OK commuter terminal...kind of like the Port Authority Terminal in Manhattan...but is wanting in so many ways as the "gateway to New York".

Look at the success of GCT. It's a destination. A couple of years ago, my wife and I both formerly crew members with Eastern Air Lines visited Manhattan and spent a couple of wonderful afternoon-evenings there. Between the Oyster Bar and other restaurants, it is a terrific place without even a thought of taking a train. I got to New York a day before my wife and I arrived by train into Penn Station. What a disaster that place is for long distance trains. The biggest problem to that place is getting some amenities into a small place to make it more of a destination instead of a Subway Station.