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The Source for Public Transportation News and Analysis November 19, 2012
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NEWS HEADLINES
NY, NJ, CT Systems See Extraordinary Storm Recovery
BY BARRINGTON M. SALMON, Special to Passenger Transport

The public transit agencies on the East Coast that bore the brunt of Hurricane Sandy have managed what is being described in many quarters as an extraordinary recovery from the devastation. They are either fully back in service or making significant progress to restore normal operations.

How quickly they have rebounded has depended, of course, on the widespread devastation and severity of the damage inflicted by the storm.

New York City
New York City was hardest hit. Sandy is the most devastating storm ever to batter MTA New York City Transit’s subway system in its 108-year history. Seven tunnels beneath the East River flooded, underground equipment was submerged and destroyed by the water, and platforms disappeared.

Joseph J. Lhota, chairman and chief executive officer, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), said the subway system is at about 98 percent capacity. Some issues remain unresolved, he said, such as the fact that MTA New York City Transit’s No. 1 train still cannot enter the South Ferry Station. System employees are diligently working on the systems and relays, plus repairing whatever other damage the flooding caused. Lastly, Lhota said, the North Bridge, which links Howard Beach to Rockaway needs to be rebuilt.

Lhota praised his employees and credits their hard work and dedication for getting the job done on what commuters and others are calling MTA’s success in getting the system back online.“The men and women deserve an enormous amount of credit,” he said. “People left their families and stayed at our facilities. The subways were running 60 percent the next day—but were not accepting passengers.”

He said he tried to anticipate the type of damage the hurricane might inflict on the subway system but his best guesses fell far short.

“I was downtown when the water came up and I saw with my own eyes the depth of water. My worst-case scenario changed in three minutes,” he said. “I was worried about pumping out all of the water and what type of damage would be done to the system.”

Lhota said he had been told all the water has been drained from South Ferry but added that it would take several weeks for work to be completed at the station.

Since the waters receded or were pumped out, Lhota said MTA employees have busied themselves with cleaning out all affected stations, drying electrical relays, and making sure the system is safe by removing impediments to tracks, replacing switches and other measures.

“This is everything we do every day anyway, just in a more concentrated fashion,” Lhota said.

He emphasized that subway riders have been overwhelmingly positive in this situation. “People have been extraordinarily impressed that we were able to bring the system back this quickly,” he said. “The Twitter world and elsewhere are full of commentary. People are very, very surprised. People thought they would not be back on trains this quickly.”

That being said, Lhota said “it would be inappropriate to say when exactly the system will be 100 percent.”

New Jersey
James Weinstein, general manager of New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit), said the work and restoration continue in his state. NJ Transit has been gradually restoring commuter rail service. Trains began running on a limited schedule on the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor line four days after the storm, followed by modified service on the Bergen, Pascack Valley, and Raritan Valley lines.

Weinstein acknowledged that the damage inflicted on the state was of historic proportions, but “Every day, more of the system comes up. Yesterday we started additional service on three different lines, and later this week we expect to resume service on the Montclair-Boonton Line. We’re getting this stuff back.”

According to Weinstein, the major challenge has been reopening the tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers. When that happens, NJ Transit will be able to double the number of its trains going into Manhattan.

More trains will be added to the schedule once Amtrak completes repairs on a substation in Kearny that was severely damaged by flooding, he added.

NJ Transit’s Gladstone Branch line suffered the most extensive infrastructure damage, Weinstein said. The system also had to contend with track washouts; wooden catenary poles snapped by high winds; substations overwhelmed by the water, which damaged the electrical and other systems; downed trees; and boats and debris scattered on railway tracks.

He noted: “A lot of people in New Jersey are trying to figure out how to get to work and fix their lives. With all those things, I know people’s patience is really being tested, but they have also been terrific.”

NJ Transit is providing travel alternatives to commuters, using hundreds of buses from FTA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency also offers free park-and-rides, bus service to Manhattan, and ferries to Battery Park and the 79th Street Pier. About 90,000 people use the ferry each day.

Connecticut
David A. Lee, general manager of Connecticut Transit (CTTransit), said Hurricane Sandy is easily the worst storm he’s seen in his 30 years with the agency. Thankfully, he added, the state was spared much of the desolation visited on New York and New Jersey.

“I’ve never seen a storm of this magnitude, absolutely not,” he said. “In our history, we’ve never shut down for a full day at least in the past 30 years. I always knew that we’d get a call from the state police to help with evacuations and we did. We never had to evacuate buses before for fear of flooding.”

The biggest impact of the storm, he said, was the closure of MTA Metro-North Railroad, which operates between New Haven and Grand Central Station, until Nov. 7. The New Canaan Line was shut down until Nov. 12 because of downed trees and damage to signal systems; buses covered the route.

Lee said CTTransit employees had to move buses from their Stamford location because of the possibility of a storm surge. The agency had buses on standby in New Haven and Stamford to assist with the mandatory evacuation order.

“A lot of our employees were affected,” said Lee, praising them for their dedication in the face of what has been described as a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane. “Some people lost power … yet just about every employee came to work in the teeth of the storm. It was really magnificent how people rose to the occasion. We had no trouble getting volunteers.”

More than two weeks after Sandy crashed ashore, Lee said it’s all systems go at CTTransit.
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