New York City restores partial fare-free bus service

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has restored partial bus service in the densely populated city that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.

Several New York City subway stations remain deluged with water dumped on train tracks and platforms by the storm, but the MTA said it began running buses on a Sunday schedule on Tuesday evening.

The agency has said it is not charging fares for the rides, and it hopes to resume a nearly full weekday schedule by Wednesday.

“Our transportation system has never faced a disaster as devastating as Hurricane Sandy, which has caused an unparalleled level of damage,” MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said in a statement.  “The challenge that we face now is one of assessment, inspection, repair, and restoration. This will not be a short process, but it will be one that puts safety as its major focus.”

The New York subway system is the busiest public transit network in the United States, with more than 5 million riders on a daily basis. The system was shut down Sunday night in advance of the storm, and Lhota said earlier Tuesday that it had not experienced anything like Sandy in 108 years of existence.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) predicted Tuesday that it could be three or four days before service on the sprawling MTA subway system is able to be resumed.

Subway systems in Washington, Philadelphia and Boston were resuming operations on Tuesday, but service on commuter railways in hard-hit New Jersey remained at a halt.

“All #NJTransit service remains suspended until further notice [with] the exception of limited #Camden bus service which will resume tomorrow,” the New Jersey Transit system tweeted Tuesday evening.

“PATH service is suspended and remains suspended until further notice,” New Jersey’s Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) railway tweeted separately.

Amtrak said it was canceling service on its Northeast Regional railway between Newark and Boston, as well as Acela high-speed trains in the entire Northeast corridor on Wednesday.

The company said it will run modified service on its Downeaster run between Boston and Portland, Maine, on Wednesday, and trains will resume south of Newark to Virginia.