Breaking: Metro-North Station at Yankee Stadium Set To Open May 23rd, 2009

Yankee fans not wishing to deal with the Ticketmaster of parking should be happy tonight. The MTA has announced that the Metro-North Station at Yankee Stadium will soon be open for business:

Officials announced Wednesday that the so-called Yankees-East 153rd Street station will open for business on May 23, and they hope they will entice fans to leave their cars at home.

"There'll be frequent service. It'll be fast," says Metro-North President Howard Permut. "You don't have to worry about any of the hassles or any of the concerns - 'There may be traffic, I have to leave a half-hour early.' You will get here when the train says you are getting here."

As we pointed out back in January, the Yankees are offering the service for only one more dollar than the regular fare to Grand Central Station. In other words, if you are traveling from Connecticut to Yankee Stadium, you will pay a dollar more to travel less distance. That being said, the convenience this will provide for Yankee fans living near the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines will be well worth the extra dollar.

The official announcement from the MTA can be found here. Read the full post, after the jump

Take the 7 train to "Mets/Willets Point"

For all of you "straphangers" out there who take the 7 train to Queens to see the Mets:

So on Tuesday, transit officials informed the Mets that when the subway station (currently named after the team’s former home, the now-demolished Shea Stadium) was rechristened, it would not actually use the name of the new ballpark.

Instead, the station, on the No. 7 line, will be called simply Mets/Willets Point. New signs will go up soon replacing the old signs, which say Willets Point/Shea Stadium. The nearby Long Island Rail Road station will be renamed in the same way.
NYTimes

For New Yorkers who are passionate for public transportation and baseball stadiums, todays news is sure to get you going. If not, at least it was an excuse to use the word

"straphanger". Roma Torre of NY1 would be proud.

Talk about it in the Stadium Insider Forums!

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MTA set to open Station at New Stadium - Allows you to pay $1 more to travel less distance

According to this article in the Connecticut Post, the pricing has been released for the yet to be opened Metro North Station at the New Yankee Stadium.

If you are traveling to games from upstate New York (as far North as Poughkeepsie) or Connecticut, you will be able to get a direct train to the New Stadium. Apparently the good news is that you will only have to pay $1 more than the normal fare from your originating station to Grand Central.

Can someone explain what is good about this? You travel less distance than you would if you were going to Grand Central, but they charge you more? On top of that, this direct route to the Stadium from the far reaches of Connecticut means that Red Sox fans up there will have an even easier trip to invade OUR house.

I guess my perspective isn't the greatest on this one since my apartment is 15 minutes door to door from the big ballpark in the Bronx. I will admit that this will add a lot of convenience for a lot of Yankee fans. However, it will also probably contribute to another fare hike on my monthly Metrocard that I could live without.

Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums! Read the full post, after the jump