attached to the project. As of June 2022, the delivery of M9s was almost three years behind schedule, reportedly due to supply chain issues and labor shortages. Only 132 of 202 cars in the base order have yet been delivered, and the additional 160 M9As will not arrive before the opening of East Side Access. The MTA thus plans to reintroduce some of the older M3 cars (which first entered service the mid-1980s) to provide the advertised additional service, until the remaining M9s for fleet expansion are delivered. Penn Station Access Redirecting LIRR trains from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal would free up tracks and platforms at Penn. This new capacity, as well as track connections resulting from the East Side Access project, would allow Metro-North Railroad trains on the New Haven Line to run to Penn Station via Amtrak's Hell Gate Bridge. Four new local Metro-North stations in the Bronx are planned as part of this project, at Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester, and Hunts Point. The MTA also proposes a second connection from the Metro-North's Hudson Line to Penn Station using Amtrak's West Side Line in Manhattan. The Penn Station Access project would provide direct rides from Connecticut, Westchester County, the Lower Hudson Valley, and the Bronx to West Midtown; ease reverse-commuting from Manhattan and the Bronx to Westchester County, the Lower Hudson Valley, and Connecticut; and provide transportation service to areas of the Bronx without direct subway service. In December 2021, it was announced that the project would be completed in 2027, several years later than initially proposed. See also Center City Commuter Connection, a similar tunnel opened in Philadelphia in 1984 to connect two previously separate rail terminals Fulton Center, another MTA Capital Construction project Gateway Program (Northeast Corridor), a proposed railroad expansion project on the west side of Manhattan History of Grand Central Terminal, more details about the history of Grand Central Terminal Lower Manhattan–Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project, a formerly proposed LIRR project North–South Rail Link, a set of proposals for a similar project in Boston Second Avenue Subway, another MTA Capital Construction project, whose Phase I entered service on January 1, 2017 7 Subway Extension, a completed MTA Capital Construction project Notes References External links MTA's Official East Side Access Project Page MTA East Side Access Flickr stream East Side Access Construction Progress, May 5, 2011; 29 Photos (MTA Flickr) East Side Access Update