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Dreamed-Of Sunnyside LIRR, Metro-North Station To Be Studied By MTA

SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS — A proposed commuter rail station in Sunnyside that has long been dreamed about by transit advocates will now undergo a more formal study by the MTA, the agency revealed last week.

The proposal to build a Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road station within sprawling Sunnyside Yard was included in the MTA's 20-year needs assessment — a list of two dozen projects that the MTA will study from now until October 2023.

At that point, the agency can pick a few of the projects to receive funding starting in 2025. They could then be built anytime between 2025 and 2044.

Sunnyside had in fact been promised a new LIRR station as far back as 2001, as part of the original proposal for East Side Access: the $11 billion project to extend the LIRR from Queens to Grand Central Terminal. When local officials in 2019 called on the state-run MTA to keep its promise and build the Sunnyside station, the MTA responded that it could not do so until East Side Access was done.

Now, that huge project — now known as Grand Central Madison — is nearly complete, with the new Midtown terminal scheduled to open in late 2022.

Hundreds of LIRR trains already pass through Sunnyside Yard each day, along with Amtrak trains.

A new transit station in Sunnyside would be a boon for the booming Long Island City area, transit experts have argued. It would also fit into the grand vision for a Sunnyside Yard megaproject — the city plan to eventually transform the 180-acre rail yard into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with thousands of affordable homes.

"Sunnyside Yard has the potential to become a transit hub that could be served not only by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) but also Metro-North Railroad and eventually New Jersey Transit and Amtrak, creating connections to and from every part of the Greater New York City region as well as the other major cities of the Northeast," reads a passage from the 2020 Sunnyside Yard Master Plan, released by the city's Economic Development Corporation.

In response to Patch inquiries about other projects included in the new 20-year assessment, the MTA would say only that each item was being "evaluated on a level playing field with the other projects listed and the results will help inform our planning efforts."

"While more than 80% of the MTA's Capital Program is dedicated to projects that maintain existing infrastructure in a state of good repair, expansion projects can help meet new mobility needs and address transportation inequities," MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said.

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https://patch.com/new-york/astoria-l...be-studied-mta