By james art The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has opened a new customer seating area on the mezzanine level of Grand Central Madison, closer to trains and platforms than the terminal’s pre-existing seating options.
The area will host 14 two-seat pairs for a total of 28 seats, which will be available to ticketed Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) customers with a 90-minute limit. It is located near the escalators that take customers down to tracks 301 and 302 and up to tracks 201 and 202.
The LIRR started Grand Central Direct shuttle service between Jamaica and Grand Central Madison on Jan. 25, 2023, and started full service on Feb. 27, 2023, as one of the first major new train terminals in the United States to open in almost 70 years. It has an even larger seating area located upstairs on the LIRR Concourse near the main ticketing office.
The opening of Grand Central Madison coincided with a systemwide 41 percent increase in LIRR service or nearly 300 trains per weekday.
The die-cast aluminum seats in the new seating area are built by Forms + Surfaces from its Tecno RS collection made specifically for high use areas such as public transit stations.