A ‘Grand’ debut for LIRR, sorta

The long-delayed Long Island Railroad terminal beneath Grand Central will finally open Wednesday — albeit as part of a softlaunch with limited service.

After 15 years of construction on the $11.6 billion transit hub, the MTA will offer some shuttle service between Jamaica, Queens and the new LIRR terminal as the agency slowly rolls out the commuter line, the agency announced Monday.

The first train will leave Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive at the Grand Central Madison LIRR terminal at 11:07 a.m., the MTA said.

Limited shuttle runs will continue for “at least three weeks,” the agency said.

At some point after the initial launch, the LIRR will run full service from Long Island to the new 700,000-square-foot terminal, named for its location running beneath Madison Avenue.

MTA officials and Gov. Hochul had hoped the extensive project — also referred to as East Side Access — would have been completed before the end of 2022, but the opening was pushed back to this month due to a faulty fan.

The most recent delay is just a minor blip in the project’s longwinding history of setbacks and rising costs. The historically late terminal was first proposed more than 50 years ago.