Grand Central Terminal

125th Street Harlem, Mount Vernon East, Pelham, New Rochelle, Larchmont - the names of stations on Metro-North’s New Haven line are a happy memory of the trip I made in June to the US Open at Winged Foot. Each morning of the tournament the older brother, the used guitar salesman and I would extricate ourselves from the breakfast table and scramble the couple of hundred yards or so from our lodgings to find our train at Grand Central Station - a train that would take us and our fellow golf fans through the Park Avenue tunnel on our 20-mile commute to our destination station – Mamaroneck. Sometimes the trains would be “specials”, but more often they would be regular service to the consternation and bewilderment of the normal users unused to the appearance of crowds of golf fans en route to the course.

But the purpose of this particular blog is neither the journey nor the tournament itself (which will always be remembered more as the Open that Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie lost, rather than the first that Australian Geoff Ogilvie won). This is about Grand Central Station (or “Terminal” as it is more correctly named).

Grand Central is a film star (North by North West, Superman, Men in Black, etc., etc.), it crops up regularly in fiction, and is used as the backdrop for several TV shows. The station has an extraordinary, cathedral-like Beaux-Arts interior with the famous Information Point and clock at the centre of the main concourse as well as its celebrated “sky” ceiling. The exterior was once prominent but is now pretty much dwarfed by surrounding office blocks. It handles around 700,000 people per day which is about double the number at London’s Waterloo. It covers a much larger acreage and the tracks, assorted waiting rooms and apparatus sink about 10 storeys below ground level. In the 1970s it was very nearly pulled down as part of a major development plan but was thankfully saved following huge public pressure backed by the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In 1998 a complete restoration project was completed and it is now one of the most impressive railway stations in the world.

What is particularly good about the station is the complete absence of clutter. At Waterloo the concourse is crowded with kiosks, temporary information desks and stalls selling the Evening Standard. It is difficult to move through the crowds of people trying to figure out train movements on the poor TV monitors and there is a total lack of style. Grand Central on the other hand is marvellously open, free of clutter and, as for style, New York’s finest just oozes the stuff. Instead of the ubiquitous Burger King that dominates Waterloo you are offered an Oyster Bar and Restaurant (which has traded continuously on the site since 1913). More trendy and modern eateries include an outpost of the Cipriani (Harry’s Bar) empire on a balcony overlooking the main hall. Here it was that the used guitar salesman, the older brother and I frittered away a fistful or two of dollars on pasta, bellinis and carafes of wine while watching the comings and goings.

There are no commercial advertising hoardings on the concourse at Grand Central. A huge American flag was installed after the World Trade Centre attacks, but that rather adds to the feel of the place. It makes you wonder if London can ever do the same. I quite like Marylebone Station and the Liverpool Street Station redevelopment was good until the clutter crept back in. I’ll reserve judgment on the new-look Kings Cross and St Pancras and only hope that they will be as easy-to-use and pleasing-on-the-eye as New York’s finest. Meanwhile I feel like checking out Milan, St Petersburg and a few other great stations, but they are for another year.