May 21, 2007 2:35 pm US/Eastern
Metro-North To Build New Yankee Stadium Station
BRONX (CBS/AP) ―
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A new Metro-North station will serve fans attending games at the new Yankee Stadium. (File photo)
CBS
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced an agreement Monday to build a Metro-North train station at the new Yankee Stadium, giving suburban fans their first direct mass-transit option to Yankees games.
Under the agreement, the MTA and New York City will split the cost of the $91 million station, due to be completed when the new ballpark opens next door to the existing one in 2009. The MTA will pay $52 million and the city will contribute $39 million.
"Ultimately, the new Yankee Stadium will be one of the most transit-accessible stadiums in the country, and the station will provide better service for Metro-North customers and a healthier environment for Bronx residents," said Peter Cannito, president of Metro-North Railroad.
The plan provides a huge relief to Yankees fans in the suburbs who are now forced to drive to the ballpark because of the lack of mass transit -- unlike their New York City counterparts who can take the subway.
Metro-North estimates that between 6,000 and 10,000 people, almost all of whom now drive, will use the new station for games. Officials expect the new station will ease traffic gridlock and parking problems that often arise on game days.
The station will also be open on non-game days to serve the South Bronx neighborhood.
"Making the new stadium as well as the resurgent surrounding South Bronx accessible to people from around the region via Metro-North will be essential to reducing traffic and pollution in the area," Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff said.
Howard Permut, the railroad's senior vice president for planning, said only about 500 to 1,000 fans typically take Metro-North from New York's northern suburbs to home games. But it's a huge hassle: Most of them ride all the way to Grand Central Terminal and then take the subway back up to the Bronx, he said.
The new station will consist of two 10-car-length platforms and a 10,000-square-foot covered mezzanine, with an overpass leading to the stadium, parking and a ferry dock.
Cannito said the walk from the station to the stadium would be about a quarter mile.
Plans for the Yankees' new $1 billion ballpark always included a Metro-North station, but Monday's announcement formalized an agreement between the MTA and the city to pay for it.
The agreement calls for the MTA to pay for the station, ticket booths, a customer-information system and half the mezzanine. The city will pay for the overpass and half the mezzanine.
The new station will be south of Metro-North's Morris Heights station on the Hudson line, but there will be service from the railroad's Harlem and New Haven lines on game days, Cannito said.
Railroad officials presented the plan to the MTA's Metro-North Committee on Monday, and the full MTA board is expected to vote on it Wednesday.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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