Park Avenue main line

Park Avenue main line
Looking south into the Park Avenue Tunnel
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Metro-North Railroad
Locale	New York City
Termini	Grand Central Terminal Mott Haven Junction
Connecting lines	Harlem Line, Hudson Line, New Haven Line
Stations	2
Service
Type	Commuter rail
System	Metro-North Railroad
Operator(s)	Metro-North Railroad
History
Commenced	1831 (1831) (street railway)
Completed	1875 (1875) (Yorkville Tunnel)
Technical
Number of tracks	4
Character	Tunnel, elevated
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Operating speed	45 mph (72 km/h)
Route map Legend Harlem New Haven to Wassaic & New Haven Hudson to Poughkeepsie Mott Haven Junction 138th Street (closed) Oak Point Link Harlem River Lift Bridge Zone 2 Zone 1 4.2 mi 6.8 km Harlem–125th Street ​​ 110th Street (closed) Park Avenue Tunnel 86th Street (closed) 72nd Street (closed) 59th Street (unused) 0.0 mi 0 km Grand Central ​​​​​ This diagram: view talk edit

The Park Avenue main line, which consists of the Park Avenue Tunnel and the Park Avenue Viaduct, is a railroad line in the New York City borough of Manhattan, running entirely along Park Avenue. The line carries four tracks of the Metro-North Railroad as a tunnel from Grand Central Terminal at 42nd Street to a portal at 97th Street, where it rises to a viaduct north of 99th Street and continues over the Harlem River into the Bronx over the Park Avenue Bridge. During rush hours, Metro-North uses three of the four tracks in the peak direction.^[1]

Originally constructed in the mid-19th century as a New York and Harlem Railroad route, the Park Avenue main line was initially a street railroad and ran to what is now Lower Manhattan. It was gradually truncated through the 1860s, until Grand Central Depot was opened at 42nd Street in 1871. The line was placed in a grade-separated structure in the late 19th century, as part of the Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue Improvement projects, and was electrified in the first decade of the 20th century as part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal. Since then, several improvement and rehabilitation projects have been made along the main line.