New York City has two main rail stations, Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station. Grand Central is on the East Side, in Midtown, and Penn Station is on the West Side, just below Midtown. Both are served by numerous bus and subway lines. Metro-North Commuter Railroad, which goes to NYC suburbs in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, serves Grand Central. Penn Station serves Long Island Railroad (LIRR), a commuter railroad serving New York's Long Island; Amtrak, the US national passenger railroad, serving many points throughout the US; New Jersey Transit, a commuter line serving points in New Jersey; and PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson), a subway line serving Manhattan and New Jersey.

Rail Terminals

Grand Central Terminal
42nd Street and Park Avenue (between Lexington and Vanderbilt Avenues) 212/532-4900
Grand Central is on New York's East Side; subway lines here include the 4, 5, 6, 7 and S (shuttle between Times Square and Grand Central). Buses stopping here include M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M42, M98, M101, M102, M104 and Q32. This is the main station for train service provided by Metro-North Railroad.

In the heart of Midtown, Grand Central was built between 1903 and 1913 by two teams of architects—the Minnesota architectural firm of Reed & Stern, and New York–based Warren & Wetmore. It shines as one Manhattan's most important landmarks, combining the romance of train travel, the history of a magnificent terminal building from a bygone time, a destination for superb restaurants, and the convenience of outstanding retail shops.

Due to efforts by such illustrious New Yorkers as the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the station was saved from the wrecking ball in a precedent-setting case that established the legality of New York's landmark preservation law. Completely restored during the 1990s, the station is a masterpiece. The main concourse, an immense space 120 feet wide, 375 feet long and 125 feet high, is filled with light flooding through the giant windows, and the 12-story ceiling, displaying stars and the gilded constellations of the zodiac, twinkles day and night.

Vanderbilt Hall, the Terminal’s 12,000-square-foot former main waiting room, is the site for ongoing free promotions and entertainment ranging from art exhibits to the annual Holiday Gift Fair and the Spring Gift Fair, which bring craftsmen, artisans and international importers to the Terminal selling an outstanding array of merchandise.

In addition to a waiting room and public bathrooms, there are 20 casual international eateries in the lower level dining concourse, and throughout the terminal there are 50 unique specialty shops and gourmet foods for sale at the Grand Central market. Restaurants include the Oyster Bar, a classic NYC seafood palace, Michael Jordan's Steakhouse and Metrazur, chef Charlie Palmer's American brasserie.

There's plenty to see. The New York Transit Museum, located next to the station manager's office, is free. There are also two free weekly tours of the terminal—one on Wednesdays by the Municipal Arts Society (212/935-3960; meet at 12:30pm at the information booth on the main concourse), and an award-winning 90-minute tour of the terminal and the surrounding neighborhood, sponsored by Altria and the Grand Central Partnership (212/697-1245; meet at 12:30pm in the sculpture court of the Whitney Museum at Altria on East 42nd Street across from Grand Central). For customized group tours, please call 212-883-2420.

If you're meeting someone at Grand Central, it'll probably be by the famous four-sided, brass clock atop the Information Booth in the center of the Main Concourse. "I'll meet you by the clock" is a classic New York saying.

Pennsylvania Station (Penn Station)
31-33rd Streets between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Penn Station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, on Manhattan's West Side, just below Midtown. Subway lines serving the station are the A, C, E, 1, 2 and 3; Buses include the M4, M5, M6, M7, M34 and Q42. This is the central station for train service provided by Amtrak, Long Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit and the PATH.

The largest building ever erected for rail travel, Pennsylvania Station was commissioned in 1910 by Pennsylvania Railroad President Alexander Cassatt and built by architectural firm McKim, Mead and White. The completed station stood where today's Penn Station does, covering more than eight acres.

The original building was an awe-inspiring beauty that contained a grand iron and glass train shed with a 150-foot ceiling and a 277-foot-long waiting room designed to resemble the Roman Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of Constantine. In 1962 it was replaced by today's more modern station, which lies between the two-square-block Penn Plaza Office Building and Madison Square Garden.

Today's Penn Station is fully equipped to handle the thousands of passengers passing through every day. Information booths are plentiful on the main concourse, there are restaurants, an enclosed waiting room, public restrooms and car rental offices nearby.

Rail Links

Amtrak
800/872-7245, 212/630-6400, 212/630-7171
Amtrak operates a nationwide rail network, serving more than 500 destinations in 46 states on 21,000 miles of routes. It operates seven days a week, with destinations throughout the United States. Many packages and special deals are available. Rail passes are available for international visitors.

Long Island Railroad (LIRR)
718/217-5477
The MTA Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, carrying an average of 282,400 customers each weekday on 728 daily trains. Chartered on April 24, 1834, it is also the oldest railroad still operating under its original name. This line operates out of Penn Station, and its 700 miles of track serve 124 stations in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau and Suffolk. Destinations include Belmont Park (horse racetrack), Shea Stadium (Mets baseball), the Hamptons (beaches), Montauk (beaches), Jones Beach and wineries. Packages are available.

Metro-North Railroad
212/532-4900, 800/METRO-INFO
Currently the second-largest commuter line in the United States, Metro-North, operates from Grand Central Terminal to 119 stations in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

New Jersey Transit
973/762-5100, 800/772-2222, 800/626-7433
NJ Transit is the nation's third-largest provider of bus, rail and light rail transit, linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. It offers frequent rail service throughout New Jersey into and out of New York City.

PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson)
201/216-6557, 800/234-7284
Rapid transit among several stops in New York City and Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, in New Jersey. It operates round trip from Newark, New Jersey's Penn Station to Lower and Midtown Manhattan (including New York's Penn Station); connections from Newark Airport. PATH's 33rd Street Station (on Sixth Avenue in Herald Square) in Manhattan is one block from Amtrak trains at Penn Station.