Travel throughout the region might become tricky as the MTA has suspended all service on the Long Island Rail Road as well as subway lines with sections running above ground in preparation for Hurricane Isaias.
With heavy rains starting Tuesday, the MTA announced that it would take these safety precautions which includes the closure of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, though bus service should not be largely affected, due to 40 to 70 mile an hour winds.
“The MTA has protocols and policies in place for weather event, those protocols and policies are being followed. They’re designed to protect the public and our employees,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said.
Metro-North’s Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines have been suspended as a result of downed trees on the tracks and a possible signal issue. Foye says crews have been placed in areas where incidents are likely to occur.
“In the last hour, we suspended some of our outdoor subway service due to having multiple trees down on multiple lines,” interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg said. “Just in the latest reports we’re seeing, it seems that we may be getting to the other side of the [high winds], so as winds die down we’ll begin to reopen after a service in some locations.”
During the ten-minute press conference on Tuesday afternoon alone, Feinberg said she had been notified of two fallen trees on tracks.
Bus routes on a detour through tunnels rather than bridges will utilize the Holland Tunnel and the Bayonne Bridge in order transport riders between Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island due to the closure of the Staten Island Ferry.
According to Foye, the main problems facing MTA operations is high winds and there is no flooding of infrastructure such as tunnels.
