GIVING IT A WHIRL: The Marine chopper scheduled to shuttle President Obama around the city Thursday takes off during a test run yesterday in Miller Field on Staten Island, where he’ll meet Mayor Bloomberg. (Chad Rachman/New York Post)
Count your monthly MetroCard as a casualty of Hurricane Sandy.
Straphangers will not be reimbursed for time lost during the superstorm — despite more than three days without subways and service that’s still limited in parts, officials said.
The decision to leave riders in the lurch was made quietly last Friday, the same day the MTA finally restored service on the N train to Coney Island, said agency spokesman Adam Lisberg.
A day earlier, the MTA restored L train service to Manhattan from Brooklyn — after 10 days.
COMPLETE HURRICANE SANDY COVERAGE
Parts of the R, 1 and A trains are still down, but MTA brass said they won’t refund any money or add time to monthly MetroCards bought before the storm.
“There will be no extensions on MetroCards,” Lisberg said.
The news didn’t sit well.
“They’re constantly raising prices!” said Roxanna Marroquin, 26, a Brooklyn rider. “They should give back. They’re always taking but not giving.”
The next fare hike goes in to effect in March.
The MTA did give two free days after restoring very limited service on Nov. 1, but it was of little good to riders like Ingrid Marshall, who had already shelled out $104 for her monthly MetroCard.
“I would love to get something in return, especially because my commute to work was terrible,” said Marshall, 37, a 4/5 train rider whose line didn’t run from Brooklyn to Manhattan for five days.
For lost or stolen unlimited MetroCards, the MTA typically will reimburse the rider $3.47 for each day of lost service.
Using that figure, straphangers would get $10.41 worth of rides if the MTA decided to provide reimbursements for the storm.
The agency earlier announced it was extending Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North monthly cards through Nov. 5.
But unlike MetroCards, the commuter rail passes are good for only one calender month.
Meanwhile, there was some good news and some bad news for New Jersey commuters.
PATH’s 9th Street station is reopening today, but passengers will be able to exit there only between 5 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. After 9:30 a.m., passengers will be able to enter and exit PATH trains at the station until 10 p.m.
PATH’s temporary line will now include stops at Newark, Harrison, Journal Square, Grove Street, and Newport in New Jersey, and at the 9th, 14th, 23rd and 33rd Street stations in Manhattan.
Trains will bypass Christopher Street.
PATH service remains suspended at Hoboken, Exchange Place and World Trade Center.
NJ Transit director James Weinstein said it will take two more weeks to get the system back to normal.
In other developments:
* The city’s beleaguered Housing Authority was making up for lost services. Public-housing tenants will be eligible for rent credits for the days they have been without electricity, heat and running water because of the storm.
* Residents still without power in hard-hit areas like the Rockaways and Staten Island will get a visit Thursday from President Obama. He is tentatively scheduled to take a Marine One tour of the Rockaways and Long Island with Gov. Cuomo before flying to Staten Island, where he will meet with Mayor Bloomberg.
The president’s helicopter practiced landings at Staten Island’s Miller Field yesterday.
* Cuomo said he will seek a $30 billion federal appropriation from Congress to help rebuild.
The funds will be used for infrastructure, housing, small businesses and helping the government with reconstruction.
“This was cataclysmic for New York, and I think it’s a wise investment for the federal government to help us build this economy back,” Cuomo said.
* Bloomberg announced a $500 million emergency spending plan to repair public schools and hospitals that need structural restorations, boilers, electrical systems and roofs. He wants federal government reimbursement.
* Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson used recovery efforts to take a swipe at Bloomberg, saying that public-housing residents have been ignored and that too much time passed before hospital damage was reviewed.
* Nassau County cops took to light-equipped helicopters last night to patrol streets where looting is a risk.
Additional reporting by Josh Margolin, David Seifman, Julia Marsh and Antonio Antenucci