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At a press conference at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan this morning, Governor Andrew Cuomo and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota announced most subway service in New York City will be returned by the end of the day. Notably for some commuters from Queens and Brooklyn, trains will now be traveling into Manhattan for the first time since before Hurricane Sandy struck last week.

"In literally under one week, 80% of the subway service has been restored from what was horrendous damage, and the worst damage the subway system had ever seen," Mr. Cuomo said. "So that is just a great, great job. The service between Brooklyn and Queens and Manhattan is being restored immediately. The 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains will immediately begin to run. The F, J, D [and] M will run later this afternoon. The Staten Island Railway will have limited service beginning later today."

According to the MTA website:

 service will operate between Woodlawn and New Lots Ave operating as an express in Manhattan only.

 service will operate between Eastchester/Dyre Ave and Flatbush as an express in Manhattan only.

 service will operate between Pelham Bay and Brooklyn Bridge as a local

 Flushing Line service will operate full local service between Main St – Flushing and 42^nd St – Times Square.

Staten Island Railway (SIR) will operate limited hourly service between St. George and Tottenville.

Click to view the subway map in full. (Photo: MTA)

At a press conference late in the night, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced New Yorkers in the metropolitan area will have their public transit fares waved for the rest of the week. Of course, traveling into Lower Manhattan won't be easy for Thursday, at least, where no subways are currently scheduled to travel.

"As a further encouragement to have people take mass transit, which is coming online piece by piece," Mr. Cuomo began, citing the intensive traffic congestion problems plaguing Manhattan earlier today. "I am declaring a transportation emergency and authorizing the MTA to waive fares...through the end of the week, Thursday and Friday. So commuter rails, subways and buses."

The governor acknowledged the ride, although free, might not necessarily be pleasant, given the demand.

"The service in many cases is limited; the service in many cases will be crowded because of the volume, which is an additional reason why we feel comfortable waiving the fare through Thursday and Friday," he added. "We hope it encourages people to take mass transit."

Providing more detail, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said subway service for many stations will return at 6 a.m. and commuters from Queens and the Bronx will be able to use it as far as the northern part of Midtown. Brooklynites will likely need the assistance of buses.

"There are three locations where they will stop," he said. "One at the Barclay's Center, where there are buses available to take the passengers directly into Midtown, Manhattan; one at Metrotech, at the Jay Street terminal, that will also take people into Midtown, Manhattan; and then in Williamsburg at the Hewes station. We are using 330 buses that will be used to shuttle the folks in Brooklyn back and forth, it's a whole flotilla of buses that will be there."

Additionally, Mr. Lhota repeatedly stressed the need for patience and tolerance as the city's public transportation system comes back online.

"It's my expectation that we'll have more service on Friday, every day we'll come back with more and more service, it's what we want to do," he  continued. "I would like to ask all New Yorkers who are on the subway system, to ask for their understanding. The system is going to be a little bit different. The trains aren't going to be as frequent, there will be crowding. So, if there's any opportunity for you to leave early or leave later than your normal hours...just bear with us as we come back from what I've described as the most devastating event to ever happen to the MTA."

There are rumors swirling that Amtrak may take over the failed ARC Tunnel that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie killed off last month. The national rail line wants to use the additional tracks to serve a burgeoning high-speed rail network. It is unclear whether this would also serve the ARC's original purpose of relieving congestion from New Jersey, though that seems possible if enough Amtrak traffic shifted from "regular" to high-speed. Still, transit officials insisted these talks were "more exploratory than preliminary."

This would presumably be part of the New York high-speed rail network that was announced only a day after Christie officially killed the project. A high-speed slap in the face!

The more immediate insult: the Federal Transportation Administration is asking for $271 million, plus interest, from New Jersey to cover the cost of ARC construction thus far. The Christie administration has promised to challenge the request, but assuming it does go through, here's hoping they don't just pull an Albany and raise NJ Transit fares to cover the costs.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo