# Bush ‘escape train’ under N.Y. hotel



## Noordam (Sep 26, 2003)

http://www.msnbc.com/news/972285.asp?0cv=CB20

During President Bush’s two-day stay at the ritzy Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York this week while seeking international support for Iraq, a special escape train was idling beneath the hotel, ready to whisk him to safety at a moment’s notice in the event of a terrorist attack, it was reported Friday.

THE SECRET SERVICE arranged for the Metro-North train to be parked at an abandoned platform, always running and ready for instant departure throughout the president’s stay at the hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday, the New York Post reported, quoting unidentified law enforcement sources.

The platform — identified as Track 61 on Grand Central Terminal blueprints — is accessible by an underground passage from inside the landmark hotel and by a freight elevator that descends from a brass-sheathed door next to the hotel’s parking garage, giving the president and his entourage a second egress route in case of emergency, the Post said. Had that occurred, the train would have sped off to an undisclosed secure location, it said.

The unused station is under the Waldorf on 49th Street and Park Avenue and was never meant for riders, the Post said. The platform and adjacent tracks are normally used as a yard for out-of-service trains and can be seen by commuters going in and out of Grand Central Station, the newspaper reported.

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And from a poster on a non-rr forum

soleft (1000+ posts) Fri Sep-26-03 05:01 PM

Response to Original message

1. My Boss, a train eficionado, says the Vanderbilts used the track

so they could avoid going to Grand Central. Other rich people used it too, they would pull the car off the regular train and just have it roll to the hotel


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## Viewliner (Sep 26, 2003)

If I remember correctly they mentioned this on "Seven Secrets of Grand Central". The platform/elevator was built to hold a car. This was because at the time of FDR's presidency, they didn't want people to know about his Polio condition, so the train would stop at that platform and a car would exit the train with him in it.


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## gswager (Sep 27, 2003)

Sound very interesting!

Was "Seven Screts of Grand Central" shown on TV? Which channel and will it run again?


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## AlanB (Sep 27, 2003)

gswager said:


> Sound very interesting!
> Was "Seven Screts of Grand Central" shown on TV? Which channel and will it run again?


It was indeed shown on TV, several times on the local PBS station if I recall correctly. No idea if it will be shown again though.


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## Noordam (Sep 28, 2003)

AlanB said:


> gswager said:
> 
> 
> > Sound very interesting!
> ...


looks like Sunday the 28th LOL.

http://www.thirteen.org/watch/highlights.p....php?view_day=6


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## gswager (Sep 28, 2003)

Darn! I ain't a New Yorker. I hope that it'll show on either History or Discovery channels.


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