MTA Weather Advisory: Stay Home If Possible, Additional Service Changes Are Expected

LongIsland.com

Commuters traveling on New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North are encouraged to stay home, if possible, as additional service changes are expected.

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New Yorkers should exercise caution, avoid unnecessary travel and pay close attention to winter storm advisories as the day progresses.

Photo by: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York.

New York, NY - March 14, 2017 - Commuters traveling on New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North are encouraged to stay home, if possible, as additional service changes are expected. New Yorkers should exercise caution, avoid unnecessary travel and pay close attention to winter storm advisories as the day progresses.

In order to enhance our communications with customers, MTA has taken steps to ensure its communications systems function well during any type of emergency.  The current website design allows for the quick posting of service information and includes a special weather page that becomes the mta.info homepage during weather-related events affecting operations.  Customers are urged to monitor this website regularly as well as television and radio reports for service updates.

MTA customers can get up-to-the-minute service updates through the service status box on the alert home page. Customers can also sign up for service email and text alerts by visiting Useful Links on the alert home page.

SUBWAYS
Express service has been suspended. Starting at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, above-ground subway service will be suspended. Please check the Underground Service Map for more details.

Snow-fighting equipment for subways will include more than 2,000 snow melting devices staged along the tracks at crucial track switches and along other infrastructure, including: 1,500 third rail heaters; 80 trains with scraper shoes, which are used on in-service trains to scrape ice off the third rail as a train moves along the tracks; 10 snow throwers, which have precise directional snow throwing equipment with rotating brushes that throw snow up to 300 feet from the track and can remove up to 3,000 tons of snow an hour; 7 de-icer train cars, which are trains equipped with ice scraping shoes that scrape off ice that has accumulated on the third rail. They also use pumping equipment to dispense a stream of nontoxic, biodegradable de-icing fluid to prevent ice buildup on the third rail. If ice is permitted to build up, subway car power pickup equipment will not be able to draw electric current from the third rail and the train will stop; 4 track jet blowers, which use a jet engine to remove accumulated snow from the roadbed. This piece of equipment is used primarily to keep the yards clear.

All previously planned subway maintenance, rehabilitation and construction projects have been canceled through Tuesday afternoon. 

BUSES
Local and express bus service is running but limited service has been suspended.

Bus operations has more than 90 pieces of snow-fighting equipment to supplement the work of municipal agencies. All local buses in service will have tires chained.

LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD
LIRR is offering a normal schedule this morning, but customers should expect service cancellations to happen as conditions worsen. 

LIRR is deploying 1,500 storm fighting personnel and up to 362 snowblowers, 18 truck plows, 22 front-end loaders and 7 rail-bound jets. They have 800,000 pounds of salt available to assist in keeping platforms and pathways clean

Click here to read more about LIRR's extensive winter storm preparation procedures here

Long Island Railroad on Twitter

METRO-NORTH RAILROAD
Winter Storm Update: East of Hudson Service Suspended at Noon

Metro-North will suspend train service by noon due to the anticipated impact of the blizzard on our territory and low ridership during the AM peak. 

Last trains will depart their originating terminals starting at 9:30 AM and arrive in Grand Central and at their final outlying destinations by noon. No trains will operate after that time until further notice.

Metro-North will suspend train service into and out of Grand Central Terminal at noon due to the anticipated impact of the blizzard on our territory and low ridership during the AM peak.

Last trains will depart their originating terminals starting at 9:30 AM and arrive in Grand Central and at their final outlying destinations by noon. No trains will operate after that time until further notice.

Last Hudson Line trains

Inbound: 10 AM from Croton-Harmon; Train service was suspended South from Poughkeepsie to Croton Harmon after the 7:50 AM train from Poughkeepsie

Outbound: 9:43 AM to Poughkeepsie; 10:21 AM to Croton-Harmon

Last Harlem Line trains

Inbound: 10:12 AM from Southeast; 10:06 AM from North White Plains

Outbound: 9:52 AM to Southeast; 10:25 AM to North White Plains

Last New Haven Line trains

Inbound: 9:46 AM from New Haven; 10:02 AM from Stamford

Outbound: 10:02 to New Haven; 10:36 AM to Stamford

This suspension is necessary to ensure the safety of our customers and to enable us to resume service once the worst of the blizzard passes.

West-of-Hudson service is currently operating on a weekend schedule. Customers should check NJtransit.com for details on Port Jervis/Pascack Valley Line service.


Please continue to check here for updates and to listen to local news for updates as to when Metro-North will be able to resume service.

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS
Pedestrian walkways will close once sustained winds reach 40mph; All bridges will close to trucks when sustained winds reach 50mph and all traffic will be barred at 60mph.

Approximately 350 maintenance and operations personnel will be deployed during the storm, including about 270 specifically for snow-fighting. Electronic weather sensors are functional at all facilities to monitor weather and roadway conditions in real time. There are more than 9,000 tons of roadway de-icer on hand and more than 100 pieces of storm fighting equipment including trucks and plows are ready. 

PARATRANSIT
Paratransit service has been suspended, except for extreme emergencies.

New York City Transit has also coordinated a procedure with New York City first responders and the Office of Emergency Management for rescuing customers on immobilized vehicles or those who develop medical needs during storms.