Above-ground subway lines in New York City and suburban commuter rails will resume service early Tuesday morning after being shut for much of Monday due to a blizzard, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced.
The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North will be back online at 4 a.m., with elevated subway lines having service restored an hour later, at 5 a.m., on Feb. 2. Service will be on a normal weekday schedule except for the LIRR, which will run on a weekend timetable.
Additionally, New York City buses will operate at about 75% of its regular schedule, Cuomo added.
Earlier on Monday, Cuomo and the MTA announced that above-ground transit would be severely disrupted or suspended due to heavy snow related to the nor’easter. What follows is the earlier report from Mark Hallum.
— Robert Pozarycki
Monday’s nor’easter is now a state of emergency as the rate of snowfall in the metropolitan effort is expected to overtake the state’s capacity to keep up, Governor Andrew Cuomo and transportation leaders announced.
Above-ground subway service was halted at 2 p.m. on Feb. 1 while Long Island Rail Road service at Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal will see the last trains out between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg and MTA Chairman Pat Foye pointed out.
“If you are not home, and you need to get home, you need to start making your way there. Now, we want to get to 2 p.m., but don’t wait. Don’t wait for that last train that’s going to service the outdoor portions,” Feinberg said. “We have every contingency plan in place, but for now we are not planning for [suspensions] on buses, we continue to operate because the roads are both passable and visibility is okay for now, but also conditions are deteriorating there as well. And so please plan for us to have to suspend some bus routes, at some point in the coming hours, we will again message to our customers as we have to suspend service and we will be focused on restarting service as soon as we possibly can.”
The Long Island Expressway and a number of other freeways could close as well in the next few hours as the rate of snowfall – about two inches per hour – is clearly higher than snowplows can keep up, according to Cuomo.
“This snowstorm is predicted to do over two inches per hour. Why is that relevant, snow plows cannot keep up with two inches per hour. Which means, even if you deploy all the plows in frequency, you can’t keep the roads clear at two inches per hour. So it’s the rate of snowfall. It’s the total accumulation, which is problematic in this case,” Cuomo said. “We’re looking at a long, two days here. I have declared a state of emergency for 44 counties in New York State. Basically, all the counties outside of Western New York state of emergency has a number of consequences, but from a citizen point of view. If you are not an essential worker, you should not be on the roads.”
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Rick Cotton announced that Port Authority Trans-Hudson service by 3 p.m. as all commuters are asked to simply stay home.
As Mayor Bill de Blasio said this morning, the Staten Island Ferry is on a reduced schedule for now but still operating. Feinberg said the Staten Island Railway is expected to continue moving people, though riders should prepare similar suspensions
