You'll Have the Best Time In Grand Central Terminal

Time is running out for Grand Central’s 15-year-old master clock atop the Information Booth, which also controls the 20 historic clocks in the terminal. The master clock’s up-to-the-minute accuracy was controlled by a short wave radio signal received daily at 3 a.m. from the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado, which, in turn, set all the analog clocks with hands and faces as well as dozens of newer, digital ones with glowing numeric read-outs.

But for time-starved New Yorkers, 23 hours and 59 minutes can seem an eternity to wait for another short-wave reality check. Occasional discrepancies between the analog clocks and the digital time on the video monitors have not gone unnoticed by hurried New Yorkers. And some of them, somehow, have found a New York minute to report to the Stationmaster’s Office that the hands on the four clock faces over the Information Booth are on slightly different times.

Another problem with the old master clock is that it was installed before the new liquid crystal display departure boards and visual information TV screens. Because of the master clock's technical limitations, the newer departure board and monitors could not be linked to it.

Trying to fix or update the master clock was impossible. The firm that produced it got their clocks cleaned, financially speaking, and is now out of business. Clearly, it was time to move on.

Brandywine Communications of Santa Ana, California, was selected to provide a new $59,000 master clock. The new clock will receive a continuous synchronizing satellite signal every single second of every single day, making Grand Central’s clocks very timely indeed — accurate to two microseconds all the time.

After the new master clock is installed in early May, it will only be a matter of time before all 55 clocks, historic and digital, in Grand Central will be linked to the master clock.

All the video displays, departure boards, and clocks in conductors' and engineers' locker rooms will be in synch and accurate to within two microseconds.

And if you could slow down a few of the 700,000 people racing through Grand Central each day and ask them what they thought about the new master clock, they’d probably tell you: “It’s about time.”