Complete Coverage: NYC Transit strike

Blog: Commuter update

Q & A: TWU's full strike

The Transport Workers Union entered Day 3 of its strike after its members walked off the job at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

NYC transit by the numbers

A look at some numbers behind the New York transit system:

Updates & alternate transit options

The contingency plans New York City has set up in the event of a transit strike fall in four major categories (click to jump to each item):

Sun sets on transit strike

To the relief of millions of commuters, the city's transit workers' union ended its 2 1/2-day strike, and bus and subway employees began returning to work.

All over but the healing

Those trains expected to screech through subway tunnels Friday may never sound so sweet. After three days of predawn preparations, crazy traffic jams, interminable train trips and endless walking -- oh the walking! -- New Yorkers heaved an inevitable sigh Thursday: It was over.

City: Strike cost $1B

The three-day transit strike cost the city $1 billion, as employees didn't show up to the office or worked shortened days, and tourists didn't shop or spend as much, according to the city comptroller's office.

Mediators made the difference

A veteran government official and two private labor mediators with close union ties were instrumental in getting the transit talks back on track, several officials said Thursday.

Strike stressed health care system

Hundreds of home health aides were stranded miles away from their elderly clients. Blood wasn't flowing to area blood banks. And many who depend on lifesaving treatment, from kidney dialysis to chemotherapy, found that they were stranded because there were no buses and trains to get them where they needed to be to receive help.

Strike's end relieves pressure on Pataki

Until the moment that the transit strike was declared over, pressure seemed to be building on Gov. George Pataki from both sides of the dispute.

Cycling soars but rule hamper riders

Anticipating the transit strike a week ahead, Peter Onghena figured the best way to get to work from his home on the Upper East Side to his job in midtown would be to bike. But when he called up his office's building manager, they told him that the commuting idea was his first strikeout.

Strike could end even without contract, union head says

Transit workers union boss Roger Toussaint and two top aides have been summoned to State Supreme Court in Brooklyn Thursday, where they could face jail for ordering the transit strike that shut down subways and buses for a second day Wednesday.

New Yorkers find their footing on day two

The debate grew as loud as the noise on the crowded commuter trains and streets:

Pataki takes tough but quiet line on strike

On the second day of New York City's transit strike, Gov. George Pataki threw his energy into criminal justice legislation at the State Capitol in Albany.

Views on striking workers harshly split

The genial feeling of shared suffering took on a testier edge Wednesday as commuters endured the second day of a transit strike.

Smoother commute for most LIRR passengers

In Day Two of the citywide transit strike, stranded straphangers and the Long Island Rail Road alike learned from the mistakes of Day One.

Commuters turn creative on second day of strike

Shortly before dawn, David Clinton pulled a cinnamon kayak off the rack atop a borrowed car with the hope of dropping it in the water where Newtown Creek sweeps past the end of Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn.

Primer on the Public Employment Relations Board

Richard Curreri, the board's director of conciliation services, is meeting with the MTA and TWU Local 100 officials.

Angry rhetoric and big fines on first day of strike

The New York City transit strike entered its second day Wednesday as lawyers for the city and state looked to the courts to dole out more punishment against union leaders, and commuters piled into cabs and walked the streets in the blistering cold.

A long, cold, dark day

They rose before dawn, hearing news that finally, the transit strike was on: Walk, ride, bike, skate, stay home. But prepare for what could be the first of many long, grim days.

Union determined to stay on strike

Bundled against the cold at picket lines across the city, transit workers hoisted strike signs and chanted union slogans -- full of bravado, anger and anxiety at what the coming days may hold.

Tales from a nightmare commute

They walked. They cycled. They carpooled. And they waited.

Scenes from a strike

It might have been tough to find any winners in the transit strike yesterday unless you counted Alfred Carallo, a furniture maker whose one-bedroom apartment in Queens faces -- and virtually kisses -- the elevated No. 7 line, stilled by the transit strike.

Pataki staying behind the scenes on talks

On Day 1 of the strike, Gov. George Pataki, who in his job picks the top mass transit bosses, struck a less militant public tone than New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg even as both condemned the Transport Workers Union.

Walking to work, Bloomberg denounces strike

Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to the city's first transit strike in 25 years with an early morning photo-op procession over the Brooklyn Bridge, denouncing the shutdown of subways and buses as "unconscionable and reprehensible."

Other public unions watch, cheer transit union

The unions representing city workers are flocking to support striking transit workers who have taken on the establishment with a militancy that is rare for local public sector unions.

Extra riders overwhelm LIRR service

A crush of commuters swamped the Long Island Rail Road Tuesday morning with thousands waiting for hours to board trains in Jamaica, riders showing up in the predawn to buy tickets in Forest Hill and a sea of passengers jamming Penn Station in the evening rush hour.

Telecommuters feel lucky

Gotta get to work in a transit strike? No problem if you're a telecommuter. Just fire up the laptop in the virtual office and work away.

Small businesses hit hard by strike

Mardy Sitzer hired a van to make several trips back and forth from the outer boroughs to pick up her employees and bring them to her small printing and packaging business, at 18th Street and First Avenue, and then take others home.

Union chief: Strike could last for days

Union President Roger Toussaint said the transit strike could last for days despite a $1 million-a-day fine and a call from the international union to end the city's first walkout in 25 years.