NEW YORK: A week after superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc on New York City and the surrounding area, schools reopened yesterday and millions of commuters fought huge crowds to board subways, buses and suburban trains in an exhausting effort to get back to work.
The daunting trip to work or school aside, living conditions remained severe for tens of thousands of people unable to return to their homes, and close to 2 million in the region suffered through another night of near-freezing temperatures without the benefit of power or heat.
Yesterday morning, with sizeable legs of the region’s public transportation network still hobbled by storm damage, people stood for an hour or more on train platforms or street corners in New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut waiting for trains and buses, only to find many of them already too crowded to board.
Service on many rail and bus lines was reduced and the subway was running at about 80 percent of its normal service. The commute from New Jersey was particularly trying.
As a Northeast Corridor Line train on the NJ Transit network pulled into Newark, passengers wondered aloud how the hundreds of passengers who crowded the platform would squeeze into the already-packed train.
A conductor banged on the window, signalling passengers to squeeze together more than they already were. “Move in! It’s gonna be a tight fit,” another conductor yelled. Still, there was no room for about half of the passengers in Newark.
“I’m taking Amtrak back this afternoon, so I don’t have to deal with this,” said Gabrielle Nader, a 27-year-old human resources professional who boarded in Trenton. “It’s worse than a subway.” Nader, from northeast Philadelphia, said she had already made Amtrak reservations through tomorrow.
Reuters
