Full LIRR service to Grand Central starts Feb. 27

Long Island Rail Road trains will begin full service to Grand Central Terminal on Feb. 27 — with nearly 300 trains arriving or departing at the newly opened Grand Central Madison platforms daily, the MTA announced Wednesday.

The announcement follows the Jan. 25 opening of the LIRR platforms 175 feet below the street. Planning for the $11.1 billion Grand Central Madison project began in 1997.

LIRR’s Grand Central service currently consists of shuttle trains to and from Jamaica, Queens. The MTA had said full service would begin after the new Grand Central operation underwent a shakedown period.

“The new schedules are going to be a major shot in the arm for the local economy and the effort to get people back to offices, theaters and shopping,” MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement Wednesday.

All 11 LIRR branches will now offer service to Grand Central Madison and Penn Station, albeit in some cases with transfers.

Service to Grand Central Madison will involve 296 trains a day, the MTA said — part of a systemwide increase that will run a total of 936 LIRR trains each day.

“This is the biggest service increase in LIRR history,” said Catherine Rinaldi, the LIRR’s interim president. The service increase also includes 36 additional daily trains to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.

When work began on Grand Central Madison, it was initially expected to be finished in less than 10 years and for less than $3 billion.

But mismanagement and cost overruns delayed the complex project — which required linking the long unused lower level of the F train’s 63rd St. tunnel to the LIRR tracks in Queens while carving the cavernous new station 17 stories beneath Grand Central.

And even with all that accomplished, the discovery of a faulty ventilation fan in December pushed the station’s opening from December to late in January.

The new train schedules were made available Wednesday on the MTA’s website.