MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota: Subway System Will Come Back As Soon As Possible

MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said this morning that Hurricane Sandy created historic damage to the metropolitan region's transportation systems.

“I can say unequivocally that the MTA last night faced a disaster as devastating as it has ever faced in its history,” Lhota said at a press briefing with Gov. Cuomo.


“Sandy wreaked havoc on the entire transportation system—the subways, the buses, Metro North, and Long Island Rail Road In every single borough of the city and every single county in the MTA region.”

Flooding, fallen trees and branches, and a lack of power have devastated the entire system, Lhota said.

Several New York Transit Authority subway tunnels from Manhattan to Brooklyn were under water, he said.

In addition, six garages were “disabled” by high water and rail yards at 207th  and 148th streets in upper Manhattan were also hit.

Lhota said the trains, subways and buses themselves were not  damaged by the storm. But the tracks and lines were.

“The assessment will take more time than we thought.,” he said. One thing found, he said, is that the water level at the South Street station downtown is “literally up to the ceiling.”

Like Cuomo, Lhota said the subway system will have to come back in stages, with riders having to show “flexibility and creativity” by using a mix of trains and buses until everything is back on line.

“If there are parts of the subway system we can get up, we will get them up,” Lhota said. “We will be able to complement that with our bus service as well.”

The Long Island Rail Road evacuated sites at its West Side yard and also had flooding at its East River tunnel that goes to Jamaica, he said.

The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and Queens Midtown Tunnel remain closed because of flooding and are being pumped out, he said.

Cuomo said the terms “catastrophic or historic” are not too strong to explain the impact of the storm.