Governor Kathy Hochul joined leaders from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for a test train ride from Jamaica to Grand Central Terminal, ahead of LIRR passenger service set to begin next year.

The following report was filed by pooler Alfonso Castillo of Newsday and may be excerpted or copied by any news organization.

Although it is being distributed to the MTA’s media list, it was wholly created by Castillo and was not subject to edits by the MTA.

Gov. Hochul arrived at Track 4 at Jamaica Station around 8 a.m.n accompanied by a contingent that included MTA Acting Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, LIRR President Phil Eng, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, LIA President Matt Cohen, SMART general chairman Anthony Simon, and other labor leaders. 

After a safety briefing on the station platform, the group boarded the first car of an M9 train, which had the official designation of “GOVTRAIN.” The Governor sat in a four-seater near the doorway with the Congresswoman. All wore masks for the duration of the trip. Lieber sat on the arm of the chair by her and discussed the project, and some of the MTA's recent dealings with Amtrak. The train departed at 8:04 am. 

A few minutes into the ride, the Governor got up and walked to a monitor set up in the middle of train car that displayed the engineer's view from the front of the train. "This is great. You can see everything," she said. 

The Governor and the other leaders stayed seated by the monitor for most of the rest of the trip. Lieber, Eng and Simon took turns discussing East Side Access with her, and other infrastructure initiatives affecting the LIRR, including recent improvements at Harold Interlocking and the Third Track.

"It's just a really exciting time for Long Island and for our railroad," Eng said to her. 

The Governor praised the MTA for its "vision" and mentioned President Biden's infrastructure push. "We're going to get it right, and that's why this project is finally on track," Hochul said. "A little over a year from now we'll have a very different customer experience." 

The Governor also talked about how ESA would address "quality of life issues." She talked about the need to also improve Penn Station. 

"Now you get to Penn Station and you kind of put your head down. . . I want people to look up," said Hochul, who compared Penn to the new Moynihan Train Hall. "Everybody deserves to have that type of experience."

Eng talked about some of the work that's been going on with the Third Track, including the elimination of several grade crossings. She remembered attending a press event last year at one of the crossings projects.

"It started on a Friday night any by Sunday evening everything was back to normal. It was extraordinary," she said. 

The train briefly stopped at Harold Interlocking, as the video feed cut in and out. Everybody paid special attention to the video monitor as the train entered into the new, brightly lit tunnels leading to Grand Central. Janno pointed out various features of the tunnels.