An FYI: MTA Chairman Joe Lhota and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo will provide the long-awaited update on the subway system and the status of the transportation network at a 12 p.m. news conference. According to Pat Kiernan, NY1 will cover it live, and the Governor’s website will be streaming it. I’m sure the other networks will carry it as well. I’ll have updates here on site and via the Second Ave. Sagas Twitter account as well. Stay tuned. I’m not anticipating good news, but the MTA is trying to restore at least partial subway service as soon as possible.
The 96th Street station on the West Side IRT sits empty on Tuesday night. (Photo via Victoria Kabak)
As the New York City transit network attempts to recover from what MTA Chairman Joe Lhota called the “worst devastation” in its 108-year-old history, the city is still, as Wednesday dawns, without subway or rail service. Even worst it’s unclear when subway service will return. The MTA says that no official decisions have been made and that no announcement will come until at least Wednesday. It could be days, if not weeks, until the full subway system is up and running.
On Tuesday evening, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota released a brief statement with some gruesome details but no timetable. He said:
The extent of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation became clear today, and its impact on the MTA system is severe. The New York City subway’s South Ferry station was flooded up to the ceiling. The Long Island Rail Road confronted 11 electrical substations in a row with no power. Metro-North Railroad crews found a boat across their tracks in Ossining. Each tube of the [Brooklyn-Battery] Tunnel is filled with 43 million gallons of water.
These are just a few of the many unprecedented challenges the MTA is facing as it tries to restore service. Our employees have been assessing the damage all day and will continue to work through the night. In many places, they have been able to begin the process of recovery by pumping water and clearing tracks. New York City buses went back on the road for limited service, and will be almost at normal strength by morning.
Still, our dedicated employees are beginning to make progress. By midday tomorrow, we will be able to discuss a timetable for service restorations.
Despite Lhota’s statement, it’s tough to get a handle on what services are running. The MTA plans to run a full slate of (free) buses on Wednesday, but those vehicles clearly won’t be passing through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Additionally, with the MTA’s website still showing its low-bandwidth emergency version, no bus route maps are available outside of those programmed into BusTime. You may also be better off with the dollar vans, as Cap’n Transit writes tonight.
No matter what happens on Wednesday though, the news is unlikely to be good. The glimpse inside South Ferry is but a preview of the flooding that plagues the system, and if the city’s newest $500 million subway station is that inundated with water, I can only imagine how the East River tubes look. Again, we’ll know more on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, reports from Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road pain similarly grim pictures. With power outages, trees down and tunnels flooded, neither commuter railroad knows when any sort of service will be restored. Crews are working around the clock to clear the tracks and repair damges, but the destruction is widespread throughout the region. For instance, as Metro-North said in a statement, “On the New Haven Line, so many trees fell on the catenary wires that workers decided to concentrate on clearing and repairing just two of the four tracks, a process that is not yet complete.” That doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.
So we wait. As life in much of the city slowly returns to normal — as restaurants open and bars serve thirsty patrons, as work beckons us all back to our desks — the great people-mover that gets us from our homes to our offices remains offline. Hopefully, we’ll know more on Wednesday, but as this sobering article from Bloomberg News warns, it could be a while.
The MTA just released raw footage of the flooded South Ferry/Whitehall station. The city’s newest subway station is under significant amounts of water and debris. It’s unclear how much damage the station has sustained or what repairs will entail. Take a look at the dramatic video below:
As we await official word from the MTA on the state of the city’s subway system, it seems clear that service will not immediately return to normal. Although buses are set to hit the streets at 5 p.m., we won’t know much about subway service until later in the day. Early indications are, though, that the full system will be out for a few days at least.
So how do we move people throughout the city? I, for instance, live around seven miles from my office in Midtown and have to cross the East River to get there. We can’t all pile over the bridge at once, and the subway, which delivers millions of people each day to destinations throughout the city, isn’t going to be at full strength for days.
To that end, Transportation Alternatives has issued a call for street prioritization. Instead of a traffic free-for-all in which buses stuffed with people compete with private cars, bicyclists, taxis and emergency response vehicles, the city could rearrange traffic as such until the subways return:
- Emergency Bus Lanes to allow swift transit throughout the City until subway service is restored.
- Emergency Street Reservations exclusively for the safe use of walkers, bikers and emergency vehicles.
- Off-Peak Bridge Biking and Walking Lanes to ensure sufficient safe space for people on foot and bicycle and prevent overcrowding on the bridges.
- Emergency Biking Lanes on well-used routes to enable safe mobility, including coned-off Midtown bike lanes.
- Bike Parking Stations and Temporary Bike Storage in major employment centers in Lower Manhattan including Foley Square, Union Square, Herald Square, Times Square, Washington Square Park and Bryant Park.
- High Occupancy Vehicle Requirements on crossings into the most congested areas of the city.
- Carpool Staging Areas offering parking and passenger pick-up locations in support of drivers sharing rides to meet the HOV requirements.
As a few people noted last night, New Yorkers may be in for a shock when they discover just how slow, infrequent and, oftentimes, unreliable the bus system is, but for the next few days, we’re going to have to rely on it. The city should make sure buses get move quickly through neighborhoods, and these street-sharing suggestions deserve a consideration before the roads start to fill up after 5 p.m. today.
Update (11:46 a.m.): New York City buses will resume limited service this afternoon at 5 p.m. as the city dries out after the Sandy storm surge. The MTA will waive fares on all buses today and tomorrow as the transportation network comes back online, but restoration of full subway service is still a few days away, according to city officials. “It’s going to take a lot of time and patience to get power and the subways back up and running,” Mayor Bloomberg said this morning. Currently, there is no firm timeline for the restoration of subway services, and the MTA again stressed as much.
According to Bloomberg — and as we already know — the subway tunnels under the East River have flooded, but the Mayor said Transit’s rolling stock has emerged unscathed. “It shows the wisdom of Joe Lhota of moving trains out of there and to higher ground,” the Mayor said. Still, the Mayor doesn’t expect full subway service back any time soon. He said he guesses that it could take “three or four days” for full service to return. “I’d be happy if that’s what it turns out to be,” he said.
Speaking a short time later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered his assessment of the system. “The damage to tracks and the tunnels under water is unlike anything the city has seen in decades, if ever,” he said. Praising the decision to halt transit service ahead of the storm as a “prudent one,” Cuomo said that this will be a “long-term reconstruction.”
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota took the mic next and offered up a sober assessment of the situation. While the rolling stock — Transit’s buses and subway cars — are OK, the tracks are not. “The MTA faced a disaster as devastating as it ever faced in its history,” he said. Currently, Clark St. Tunnel, Steinway Tunnel, Montague St. Tunnel, Cranberry Tunnel and Rutgers Tunnel are under water, and crews are pumping out the Joralemon St. Tunnel. Some downtown stations have water up to the ceiling, and the MTA will not have a firm timeline for service restoration until a full assessment of the system can be conducted.
It’s clear though that as service comes back, it will do so in a piecemeal way. “We should look at this in part and not in whole. If there are parts we can get up, we’ll get them up,” Lhota said. The MTA should have another update later today when a the assessment has been completed, and I’ll update as more information comes in.
A surveillance camera at Hoboken showed water rushing into the PATH system. (Photo via @PANYNJ)
PATH trains may be out for as much as 7-10 days, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced at a press conference this morning. Noting that the system sustained “serious damage,” Christie explained that with salt water in the system, crews will have to drain, inspect and repair the PATH system.
Additionally, Christie said, there is “major damage on each and every one of New Jersey’s rail lines” and “large section of track were washed out.”The New Jersey governor anticipates that New Jersey Transit trains will be offline for a few days as well as the system sustained a lot of damage but thinks those trains may be back sooner than PATH. As always, I’ll update as news develops.
* * *
Update (3:02 p.m.): As more news has emerged from New Jersey, the situation for New Jersey Transit sounds dire. As the agency tweeted earlier today, “Early inspections this morning reveal that Sandy has devastated NJTransit’s operation & infrastructure.” Service will not returning any time soon.
Kate Hinds from Transportation Nation had more from NJ Transit officials. An agency spokesperson said the network had been “quite damaged, if not crippled.” “This is unprecedented damage,” Nancy Snyder said. Hoboken, Secaucus and Newark Penn Station were still underwater, and New Jersey Coast Line bridges had sustained serious damage as well. There is currently no timeline for the resumption of service.
New Jersey Transit’s Hoboken Terminal was flooded earlier today. (Photo via @NJ_Transit)
As the MTA begins to address the fact that water infiltrated the subway system during the storm surge from Sandy on Monday night, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota issued a statement on efforts to restore subway and other transit service. There is currently no timeline for our trains and buses to come back, but crews are working on the system now. Lhota does not mince his words, and his assessment is grave.
The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night. Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system, in every borough and county of the region. It has brought down trees, ripped out power and inundated tunnels, rail yards and bus depots.
As of last night, seven subway tunnels under the East River flooded. Metro-North Railroad lost power from 59th Street to Croton-Harmon on the Hudson Line and to New Haven on the New Haven Line. The Long Island Rail Road evacuated its West Side Yards and suffered flooding in one East River tunnel. The [Brooklyn-Battery] Tunnel is flooded from end to end and the Queens Midtown Tunnel also took on water and was closed. Six bus garages were disabled by high water.
We are assessing the extent of the damage and beginning the process of recovery.
Our employees have shown remarkable dedication over the past few days, and I thank them on behalf of every New Yorker. In 108 years, our employees have never faced a challenge like the one that confronts us now. All of us at the MTA are committed to restoring the system as quickly as we can to help bring New York back to normal.
The subways last flooded in mid-December of 1992 when all service was suspended and only three tunnels filled with water. Some service was restored the same day, but the L train, for instance, was out of service for several days. It’s too early to tell how serious the damage from Sandy is, but all indications are that it was worse than the 1992 storm. Some service over the city’s bridges could come back soon, but it’s going to be a while before the subways are back at full strength.
Updated (Tuesday, 12:30 a.m.): According to reports from the MTA, water entered the under-river tubes connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn as the Sandy storm surge overtook the city as well as the 1 train tunnel between Chambers St. and South Ferry.
We can confirm that there has been water infiltration into the New York City Subway tunnels under the East River. We cannot confirm a depth.
— MTA (@MTAInsider) October 30, 2012
Additionally, Ted Mann of The Wall Street Journal reported that water had entered all five subway tubes that run between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as the 7 train’s Steinway Tubes. Various stations and tunnels have flooded as well.
Earlier in the day, the MTA offered up some information on salt water interacting with the subway system. Even after removal, salt remains on sufaces, and the salte can accelerate corrosion. Any surface impacted by flooding has to be cleaned or replaced. It’s difficult to estimate the time required to clear a flooded tunnel and bring equipment and stations back into service. The timeline depends upon the height of the storm sturge, its speed and the extent of flooding. Generally, the longer a tunnel is flooded, the longer it will take to return to service.
According to the MTA, up to four feet of water entered a Lower Manhattan station as well earlier on Monday. Kevin Ortiz, Transit spokesman speaking on CBS 2, stressed that it could take anywhere from 14 hours to more than four days to restore service if the tunnels are flooded. Once salt water hits switches and signals, all bets are off for any quick service restoration until the system can be inspected and repaired.
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said the extent of flooding is “quite serious.” Despite earlier rumors that suggested we could go a week without subway service, Lhota cautioned against such a set timeline. “We’re trying to get an estimate of what if anything we’re dealing with here,” he said.
Still, one MTA source told Ted Mann that “it could be a long time” until full service is restored. No official estimates will be released until the extent of the flooding and damage can be determined, and the MTA repeatedly downplayed early rumors of a week-long service outage:
Rumors are wrong. The MTA cannot assess damage until Tuesday. It is way too early for a subway reopening timetable.
— MTA (@MTAInsider) October 30, 2012
Here’s what Adam Lisberg, the authority’s head spokesman, said via Twitter:
Entire Hudson River is flowing into Ground Zero, Carey Tunnel and subways. It sounds like Niagara Falls. Too dark for pic.
— Adam Lisberg (@adamlisberg) October 30, 2012
Meanwhile, speaking on WNYC, transit reporter Andrea Bernstein said that Bowling Green is the station under water. Pumps are operating on generators and are independent of the power outages currently plaguing Manhattan south of 39th Street. It’s unclear how the rest of the system is impacted right now. I’ll keep updating this post as more information comes in (and, with the lights flickering, as long as I have power).
Updated (5:30 p.m.): As Sandy’s landfall nears and the wind speeds around the city pick up, the MTA is starting to shut down its bridges and tunnels. The Gov. Hugh L. Carey (nee Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel is closed, and the Cross Bay Bridge has been shuttered immediately. The Verrazano and RFK Bridges are under a Phase II wind restriction order which limits the types of vehicles and speeds permitted to cross, and the Throgs Neck, Bronx Whitestone, Marine Parkway, Henry Hudson and Verrazano Narrows Bridges will close at 7. New York City has announced that the four bridges under its purview — the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Queensboro — will close at 7 p.m. as well.
The RFK Bridge and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel will stay open for now. That decision is subject to change pending weather conditions. This storm — and the incoming storm surge — is going to get worse over the next few hours. Stay off the roads if at all possible.
Crews have prepped the Lenox Terminal at 148th Street in advance of a potential storm surge. Photo: MTA New York City Transit / Leonard Wiggins
As water has begun to creep over the Battery, we’re in the not-so-calm before the worst of the storm and an accompanying surge hits the New York City area. Transit services have been offline since last night, and an eerie calm has descended over the city. Some people are out and about, and some local businesses are open. But right now, we’re just waiting for the worst to arrive.
The MTA though is not sitting idly by. They spent the night shoring up the system, and at a press conference with the Governor a few minutes ago, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota spoke about the risk to the system. Salt water, he explained, can have a very bad impact on the system. It can corrode switches “quite easily” and would seriously damage the signal system as well. Essentially, without switches and signals, the subways cannot run.
By 7:45 p.m., the mezzanine at Times Square was devoid of its usual hustle and bustle. Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Aaron Donovan
Last night, the MTA sent out a bunch of photographers to capture the system as it shutdown. We saw scenes of people rushing for the last train, an empty Penn Station, and Grand Central in its I Am Legend phase. People are at home as the storm strengthens.
As of now, the MTA has no plans to return subway service to normal until well after the storm passes. Once we’re in the clear weather-wise — which may still be 24-36 hours from now — crews will have to inspect the system for damage. I’ll have any updates as they emerge, but right now, the city that never sleeps seems to be taking an extended nap.