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 U.S. national passenger railroad, serving many points throughout the U.S.; 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, 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 the Minnesota architectural firm of 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.

In addition to a waiting room and public bathrooms, there's a food concourse with eateries galore on the lower level, and retail shops selling everything including ties, pies, eyeglasses, magazines, flowers, wine, and chocolates. Restaurants include the Oyster Bar, a classic NYC seafood palace, Michael Jordan's Steakhouse and Metrazur, chef Charlie Palmer's American brasserie. The New York Transit Museum, located next to the Station Manager's Office, is free, as are twice-weekly tours of the terminal, which are run on Wednesdays by the Municipal Arts Society (212/935-3960; meet at 12:30pm at the information booth on the Grand Concourse), and on Fridays by the Grand Central Partnership (212/697-1245; meet at 12:30pm in front of the Philip Morris/Whitney Museum across the street).

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 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, and New Jersey Transit, PATH.

New York City used to have another train station equally as impressive as Grand Central Terminal - Pennsylvania Station. 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. It was torn down in the name of progress in 1962 and replaced by today's more modern station, which lies between the two-square-block Penn Plaza Office Building and Madison Square Garden.

The Penn Station Redevelopment Project began planning in May 2001 to purchase the Parthenon-like U.S. Post Office across the street on 8th Avenue and transform it into a "new" classic station; the project is currently on hold.

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 is the country's national passenger railroad. 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
This line operates out of Penn Station, with service between NYC and Queens, Brooklyn, and 134 Long Island communities. 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
Frequent rail service throughout New Jersey into and out of New York City.

PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson)
201/216-2677, 800/234-7284
Rapid transit among several stops in New York City and Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, in New Jersey. Operates round trip from Newark, NJ's Penn Station to lower and midtown Manhattan (including New York's Penn Station); connections from Newark Airport. PATH's 33rd Street Station (on 6th Avenue, in Herald Square) in Manhattan is one block from Amtrak trains at NY's Penn Station.