Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal, located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, serves as the southern endpoint for Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven Lines, connecting commuters from the northern New York metropolitan area. It also accommodates Long Island Rail Road passengers via Grand Central Madison, a 16-acre underground addition constructed between 2007 and 2023 beneath the Metro-North tracks. The terminal links to the New York City Subway at the Grand Central–42nd Street station. Opened in 1913 and named after the New York Central Railroad that built it, the terminal handled intercity trains until 1991, when Amtrak moved those services to Penn Station. It ranks as North America's third-busiest train station, behind New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station, and is among the world's top ten most-visited tourist attractions, drawing 21.6 million visitors in 2018 (not counting train or subway riders).

The terminal's Beaux-Arts architecture and interior design, featuring numerous artworks, have earned it landmark status, including designation as a National Historic Landmark. Its Main Concourse is a popular meeting spot and frequently appears in films and television. The building houses a variety of shops and dining options, from upscale restaurants and bars to a food hall and grocery market, along with a library, event hall, tennis club, railroad control center and offices, and a sub-basement power station.

Covering 48 acres, Grand Central boasts 44 platforms—more than any other train station globally—all located underground. These platforms serve 30 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower, totaling 67 tracks including a rail yard and sidings; 41 tracks handle passenger service, while the remaining two dozen are used for train storage.

The name "Grand Central Terminal" was chosen by the New York Central Railroad, which built the station and its two predecessors on the site. Though officially called a terminal (a term used for facilities where trains originate and terminate, or where rail yards exist), it has long been colloquially known as "Grand Central Station," the name of its immediate predecessor from 1900 to 1910. That name is also shared with a nearby U.S. Post Office station and, informally, with the adjacent subway station.

Grand Central serves about 67 million passengers annually, more than any other Metro-North station, with trains arriving every 58 seconds during morning rush hour. Three Metro-North lines—the Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven Lines—terminate here, serving commuters from the Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York, as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. The Long Island Rail Road's Grand Central Madison station, completed in 2023 as part of the East Side Access project, connects the terminal to nearly all LIRR branches via its Main Line, with partial service to Jamaica beginning January 25, 2023. The adjacent subway station serves multiple routes, and several MTA bus lines stop nearby.

Historically, the terminal and its predecessors handled intercity service from 1871 until 1991, when Amtrak ceased operations there. Through transfers, passengers could reach major U.S. lines, including the Canadian, Empire Builder, San Francisco Zephyr, Southwest Limited, Crescent, and Sunset Limited, with destinations like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, New Orleans, Chicago, and Montreal. Notable former trains include New York Central's 20th Century Limited, a luxury service to Chicago from 1902 to 1967. From 1971 to 1991, Amtrak's Empire Corridor trains—such as the Lake Shore, Empire Service, Adirondack, Niagara Rainbow, Maple Leaf, and Empire State Express—terminated at Grand Central, while Northeast Corridor trains used Penn Station.

The terminal was designed with two main passenger levels: an upper for intercity trains and a lower for commuter trains, a layout devised by New York Central vice president William J. Wilgus to separate passenger flows. The interior was originally designed by Reed and Stem, with contributions from Whitney Warren of Warren and Wetmore.