East Cavern. On February 10, 2016, East Side Access was still a good number of years away from becoming Grand Central Madison. This area would become the tunnel for tracks 203/204 on the upper level and 303/304 on the lower level. These tracks bring MTA LIRR trains from Queens to the east side of Manhattan. This is part of an overall plan for area's rail transportation future that will use the reduced congestion from LIRR's schedule changes to bring MTA Metro-North Railroad trains to the west side from the New Haven and potentially the Hudson Line as well to Penn Station, routings both presently used by Amtrak. On January 25, 2023, Grand Central Madison opened for public use with "Grand Central Direct" shuttle service from Jamaica, and it was recently announced that full schedule implementation will begin on February 27, 2023.
