Northbound R/W trains at the Cortlandt St. station are up and running once again, but not as widely used as expected.
The station reopened on Nov. 25, but on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee in the token booth said he’d seen fewer than 30 people in the two hours that he’d been on duty that day. Several people used the station as an underpass to get out of the rain for a block, and a few asked how to go southbound (the M.T.A. doesn’t expect to open that platform until Sept. 11, 2011).
Corey Rose, who commutes from New Jersey to Brooklyn every day, said the new station was great, and long overdue. “I’ve been waiting for this,” he said. “This will make things a lot easier for my commute.”
The station was badly damaged on 9/11, and initially reopened in September of 2002, only to be closed down again in August of 2005 to accommodate construction on part of the Fulton St. Transit Center.
Even at 5:15 p.m. Monday, 25 out of the 30 passengers using the subway station were tourists speaking different languages and toting Century 21 bags.
When asked for a comment, Downtown resident Matthew R., 43, said, “What do I think? I think it’s about [expletive] time.”
— Helaina N. Hovitz
