Plans were made in 1995 to bring LIRR service to East Midtown, and had resurfaced by the turn of the century. At the time, the MTA was quoted as saying that the LIRR East Side connection would not be completed within the next generation. Two years later, in 1997, U.S. Senator Al D'Amato started petitioning for an allocation of federal money to connect the LIRR to Grand Central. New York Governor George Pataki had previously proposed completing the project, but D'Amato's support, as well as the promise of financial backing, increased the likelihood that construction would actually commence. At the time, if everything went favorably, the LIRR link could open by 2010. By that time, the LIRR was the busiest commuter railroad in the United States, with an average of 269,400 passengers each weekday in 1999. As of 1998, there were almost 1.77 million jobs in Manhattan. An increasing number of these jobs were white-collar "office" jobs, with most of these new jobs in East Midtown. Penn Station, located on the West Side, was operating at capacity due to a complex track interlocking and limited capacity in the East River Tunnels.