The only remaining, and somewhat legitimate, reason for 3 + 1 operation is to keep Hudson Line trains to the westernmost Park Avenue approach track. Alternative G itself would convert many reversals to through movements, thus helping this problem in its own right. Trimming the time trains spend at the platform from today’s 20+ minutes to a more typical dwell of 10 minutes or less should also simplify matters. Although most of the switches in the approach are good for 15 mi/h or higher, the railroad slows all trains to 10 mi/h for the last mile to the bumpers. Part of the bottlenecking that makes 3 + 1 operation look attractive stems from the low speed limit in the Grand Central throat.
Under this strategy, three out of four tracks take inbound trains in the morning and outbound trains in the evening. Today, Metro-North uses a 3 + 1 strategy on the Park Avenue approach to Grand Central. The key is that use of the Metro-North 2020 service plan implies inefficient practices. Circulation improvements would be needed at both Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, the latter having certain landmark preservation considerations, to accommodate incremental pedestrian flows.
The remaining two Metro-North trains and seven NJ TRANSIT trains would head north from the lower level of Grand Central Terminal in revenue and non-revenue service. To allow NJ TRANSIT trains to enter Grand Central Terminal, the conceptual service plan requires that nine of the 11 Metro-North trains arriving at the lower level of Grand Central Terminal in the AM peak hour would continue through the new tunnels to Penn Station and thence to either the Twelfth Avenue Yard or the Boonton Yard for storage. Of these, 13 would turn in Grand Central Terminal and head back south to Penn Station and points west. During the AM peak hour, 20 NJ TRANSIT trains would travel from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal. Additional service beyond the 13 would make the entire operation unreliable. The results yielded a conceptual service plan that indicated an increase of 13 additional NJ TRANSIT inbound trains (Secaucus to Penn Station) over the Post-Secaucus Service Plan during the AM peak hour, for an inbound total of 36 trains (34 NJ TRANSIT, two Amtrak) occupying 38 slots. The capacity analysis determined the maximum number of trains capable of operating in the AM peak hour in the key segments, Secaucus to Penn Station and Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal. Detailed physical and operating characteristics of NJ TRANSIT, Amtrak, and Metro-North were used to simulate the functional, fully integrated rail network to be in place by 2020. The combined Post-Secaucus Service Plan/Metro-North operating plan was the foundation for simulating train movements between the Secaucus Transfer Station, Penn Station, and Grand Central Terminal.
This service plan included 11 trains in the AM peak hour arriving at the lower level of Grand Central Terminal. The projected Metro-North 2020 service plan was used as a basis for future train movements into and out of Grand Central Terminal.
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