For those who have to face the Monday morning commute, it will be ten times harder tomorrow morning to get to where you have to be. Mayor Bloomberg has said that although they are doing their best to restore service, most transit lines will be closed “well into Monday.” Workers will be working around the clock to pump out as much water as they can, but it takes a full eight hours for the subways to get running once they have been shut down. Read more details after the jump.
@Julie1205
It’s going to be a mad, mad Monday-morning commute.
Mass transit probably won’t be fully up and running until “well into” tomorrow, and straphangers should plan on walking, biking or carpooling to work, officials said yesterday.
Subways, buses, Metro-North and the LIRR won’t be restarted until transit workers deal with potentially flooded train tunnels and vulnerable power lines, Mayor Bloomberg said.
NJ Transit, too, is in limbo as to when service will resume tomorrow.
“Monday morning is going to be a mess in terms of the commute,” Bloomberg said yesterday.
It takes eight hours to get the subways running once they’ve been shut, with workers pumping out floodwater, drying third rails and electrical equipment, and restarting signals, Bloomberg said.
He encouraged the thousands of city evacuees to hitch rides back home.
“It is going to be inconvenient,” he conceded.
New Yorkers can expect other hardships, and some welcome relief, in the hurricane hangover tomorrow:
* Meters and alternate-side parking rules will continue to be suspended.
* Airports will likely resume incoming service. Like mass transit, air travel was suspended yesterday. About 1,000 Port Authority employees are assigned to get planes moving again.
* New Jersey bridges and tunnels will be open, barring major flooding, after winds have died down and engineers inspect for wind and water damage. PA spans were to close when winds reached at least 40 mph.
* New York City crossings, which were to shut down with expected 60-mph gusts, were also to reopen after inspections. Unfortunately, tolls, which were suspended over the weekend, will also return.
* PATH service and the AirTrain should be running again. Each takes only about an hour or two to get up and running, and staffers will be working 12-hour shifts.
* NJ Transit would not say when buses and trains would be rolling again tomorrow, but said up to 8,000 employees will be on deck to get limited service running as soon as possible. Like the subway, it takes about eight hours to resume service for Garden State trains.
* City transportation officials will announce today the Staten Island Ferry schedule. Its service was to be suspended once winds reached 46 mph.
* NY Waterway officials expected their East and Hudson River vessels to sail tomorrow, but could not say when.
* Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty will remain closed tomorrow after a washed-out weekend.
* The US Postal Service intended to offer full service tomorrow after ending deliveries an hour early yesterday.
