The MTA has added a new seating area at Grand Central Madison, providing a resting place for weary Long Island Rail Road commuters.
The transit agency said Friday that it had added 28 seats on 14 benches made of “die-cast aluminum” on the terminal’s mezzanine level near a set of escalators taking riders up to tracks 201 and 202 and down to tracks 301 and 302.
Commuters will be restricted to sitting on the benches for 90 minutes at a time.
Grand Central Madison, the east side LIRR terminal 17 stories beneath Grand Central proper, opened last year to great fanfare. It became the first major new train terminal to open in the United States in 70 years, the MTA says.
It was the culmination of the massive East Side Access megaproject to bring the LIRR to the east side and expand the railroad’s capacity. It took about 25 years to complete and ballooned in cost to over $11 billion, making it one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in US history.
Soon, however, commuters noticed that the gleaming new terminal lacked one key area: places to sit down. While the terminal featured a 29-seat waiting area near the ticket counter, it was largely obscured from public view.
Critics blasted it as the latest example of “hostile architecture” intended to keep the homeless out of public spaces. Upstairs at the Metro-North section of Grand Central, the MTA has removed seating for most users of its dining concourse and blocked off some existing benches. At Moynihan Train Hall, passengers often sit on the shiny concourse’s floor as they wait for Amtrak trains, due to the conspicuous lack of seating.
The MTA also has a rule that forbids sitting in the terminal for more than 90 minutes, which applies to the new mezzanine seating. Technically, violating this rule can net someone a fine of up to $50, but last year an MTA spokesperson told amNewYork Metro that such a fine hadn’t been handed out in at least half a century.
The MTA did not immediately say whether such a fine will be levied for plopping down one’s butt for more than an hour and a half.
