Long-awaited and often wished-for, the link between the LIRR and the Metro-North is slowly getting built. But to make it happen, we need a tunnel from Queens to Grand Central Station - AKA the East Side Access project. It would transform LIC too, putting a major subway-commuter rail-bus-etc station just east of Court Square. Coming...soonish.

LIRR, Amtrak on same track with commuter rail link -- Newsday.com

An agreement reached recently by the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak has pushed the long-awaited commuter rail link to Grand Central closer to reality, railroad officials said Tuesday.

But federal funding of the $7-billion plus East Side Access project still must be secured.

"First of all, the project couldn't go on without it," LIRR president James Dermody said Tuesday of the agreement with Amtrak. "This is the best agreement for all the railroads involved."

To access the tunnel to Grand Central, the LIRR must travel over and also under property owned by Amtrak. Both the railroad and Amtrak own tracks, property and yards at Sunnyside, Queens, and also share tracks at the Harold Interlocking west of Woodside. Harold Interlocking is the section of tracks where LIRR and Amtrak Northeast corridor trains merge and are aligned to go through Penn Station's four East River tunnels.

The railroad and Amtrak have agreed to allow the LIRR to tunnel under the Amtrak-owned Sunnyside yard so LIRR trains can reach the tunnel to Grand Central, Dermody said.