Talk Bronx New York

 

It won’t be ready for the Yankees’ home opener on April 16, but Metro-North Railroad plans to open its station at Yankee Stadium about a month later, on May 23, the railroad announced yesterday.Bronx Bombers fans from the suburbs will first be able to ride Metro-North to a Saturday game against Philadelphia.

“They will have direct, fast, convenient and reliable service to Yankee games so that they don’t have to worry about traffic,” Metro-North President Howard Permut said yesterday, as he and other railroad officials showed the nearly complete stop to the media. “It will be much more comfortable. We think it will be basically a home run for the people of Westchester and Connecticut.”

What’s more, the new wider walkway from the parking areas west of the train tracks, over 153rd Street to the stadium will be opened in time for this weekend’s exhibition games against Chicago. Replacing the 10-foot-wide “gerbil trail” walkway that humped over 153rd Street, the new overpass is 25 feet wide and slopes gently enough to be used easily by people in wheelchairs and parents pushing strollers.

The $91 million station features platforms up to 25 feet wide, twice the width of a typical platform, to handle the hordes of fans. It will be a regular stop on the Hudson Line, open 365 days a year. But on game days, when up to 10,000 people are expected to use the station, fans can reach the station on Harlem and New Haven line trains as well, and beefed-up service will be aimed at keeping the fans moving.

Fans have been waiting.

“This will probably save me at least an hour getting home from the game,” said Peekskill resident Dan Bertha, 41. The lifelong Yankees fan usually takes the No. 4 subway to 125th Street, then catches a Metro-North train a block over that takes him north, back past the stadium on the way home.

“So this is great news,” he said of the new stop opening.

Harlem and New Haven line trains can reach the stop using a curving track in the railroad’s Mott Haven Yard south of the stadium. But there’s a hitch. During rush hours, trains will not use that looping track. So, when traveling to weekday games, Harlem and New Haven line customers will have to go to the Harlem-125th Street station or Grand Central Terminal, then take shuttle service back to the Yankees stop. The shuttle runs, saving fans from walking a block east of the 125th Street station to catch the No. 4 train, will be “nearly continuous,” and will stop only at Grand Central, 125th Street and the Yankees stop, the railroad said.

The station is part of sweeping construction activity in the Bronx neighborhood that includes a new Yankee Stadium. Next to the station, the Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market is under construction, with stores such as Target, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Marshalls planning to open. A park and esplanade are planned along the Harlem River nearby.

When there’s no game at the stadium, the railroad expects Manhattan-bound suburbanites to drive to a 2,400-space parking garage on 153rd Street and take the 15-minute ride to Grand Central. Metro-North also expects Bronx residents to use the trains to commute to Westchester communities such as Yonkers and Tarrytown.

The station has been built in a tight spot, requiring the spreading of four tracks to make room for the platforms, with columns rising from the west platform to support the Major Deegan Expressway, or Interstate 87, passing overhead. And it was built while Hudson Line trains made their usual runs through the construction area, achieving a 97.6 percent on-time record last year.

Yesterday, construction workers were moving toward the final stages of the project. A mezzanine area features a vaulted translucent glass ceiling that reaches 25 feet or more in height, “for open ventilation and a nice, airy feeling,” said Mary Miceli, director of capital engineering for Metro-North.

Workers still need to erect rain shelters on the platforms. When it’s finished, people will be able to walk from one end of the station to the other under cover.

“If there’s a rainout and they have to come through, … they come here and they’re protected from the weather,” Miceli said.

The station is designed with lots of glass, including elevators with clear sides, for visibility.

“We wanted to make everybody feel safe and secure when they’re here,” Miceli said.

In June, a 200-foot-long glass mosaic piece called “Home of the Stars” will stretch along one side of the walkway. Designed by Brooklyn artist Ellen Harvey, it depicts the phases of the April sky in the Bronx from late afternoon to late night.

For riders on the Hudson Line, the cost of a ticket is the same as any Bronx stop. For Harlem and New Haven line riders, there will be an extra fee of $1 during peak hours and 75 cents in off-peak times. Passengers on all three lines who hold monthly or weekly commuter tickets can ride trains to the station for no extra charge. Fares across the system are expected to rise June 1.

The contractor, CCA Civil Inc./Halmar International LLC is expected to complete the finishing touches and remove all equipment by Aug. 23.

The stop is the first new station opened on the rail system since 2000, when Metro-North extended the Harlem Line north of Dover Plains, opening the Tenmile River and Wassaic stops, said railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. Unlike other stops, the railroad hopes that the Yankee-E. 153rd Street Station, with its heavy use and advertising revenue, it will bring in enough money to cover the costs of operating and maintaining it, possibly with money left over, Anders said.

“That’s what we’re hoping,” she said.

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Tags: 4 train, Bombers, bronx, bronx bombers, Bronx News, Bronx People, Bronx residents, Bronx Roadways & Streets, Bronx Terminal Market, Brooklyn, Chicago, Gateway Center, Grand Central Terminal, Harlem River, Major Deegan Expressway, Manhattan, Metro-North, Metro-North Railroad, Mott Haven, neighborhood, new yankee stadium, Sports, The Bronx, traffic, Westchester, Yankee, Yankee Stadium, Yonkers

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