Train pain will continue as commuters head to work tomorrow, with riders of the L and G subway lines forced to seek other transit options and many suburban lines still out of service.
The MTA had restored 80 percent of the subway yesterday. But nearly a week after superstorm Sandy ravaged the subways, the L-train tunnel beneath the East River was still flooded wall to wall.
“My hope is that it’s [restored] one day next week,” said MTA boss Joe Lhota.
There’s even less hope for the forlorn, long-neglected G train, which is also shuttered because its tunnel is flooded beneath Newtown Creek.
There’s no schedule yet to reopen either train, leaving straphangers in Brooklyn scrambling for ways out.
“I feel like the divide between Brooklyn and Manhattan has never been greater,” said Drew Christien, 28, of Williamsburg. “It’s extremely frustrating for someone who’s being forced to come into the city to work,” he said. “And all my friends are stranded in their neighborhoods too.”
Justin Chotikul, also of Williamsburg, tried to get to Manhattan by taking a car service to the Atlantic Terminal subway stop.
“It was hard to get a cab and they were concerned with distance, because they don’t have gas,” Chotikul said, adding that the livery driver he found charged him $20.
Service on the B, C and E lines was also out yesterday, although the MTA expects the E to run tomorrow. The A will also run locally tomorrow from 168th Street in Manhattan to Lefferts Boulevard in Queens.
A-train service beyond Lefferts Boulevard to the Rockaways will require major reconstruction of the tracks over Jamaica Bay that could take months, officials say.
Over the weekend, MTA workers were still trying to pump water from the tunnel that carries the A and C trains under the East River.
The R train has been running between Jay Street and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, but the tunnel carrying it to Brooklyn remains flooded.
The Franklin Avenue and Rockaway Park shuttles are out of service, and the Rockaways branch of the A train needs major reconstruction before it’s running again.
On the upside, most subway service has been restored. The 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains have full service.
Lhota said he expected to see the D, F, J and M lines running from Brooklyn to Manhattan by early today, along with full service on the Q, 2 and 3 trains.
He said service on the 1 train will likely be extended to Rector Street. He also expects to see N-train service between Astoria-Ditmars in Queens and 59th Street in Brooklyn tomorrow.
Elizabeth Hoffman, a speech pathologist who works in Brooklyn and lives in the Lower East Side, said, “It’s exciting to get back to my normal routine.”
The Staten Island Railway began limited hourly service yesterday morning and is expected to become more frequent throughout the weekend. Lhota said it should be close to full service tomorrow.
The Metro-North Railroad, which resumed full service on all three of its main lines yesterday, will also reopen branch lines east of the Hudson River tomorrow.
Long Island Rail Road will operate tomorrow on a weekend schedule everywhere except on the Long Beach Branch, east of Speonk on the Montauk Branch, and east of Ronkonkoma to Greenport,