HURRY UP AND WAIT! Lines go around a city block in Brooklyn yesterday as riders wait for buses in lieu of the shut-down subways. Most subways and suburban trains are expected to be running on Monday. (EPA)
You can finally go back to hating your Monday-morning commute for all the normal reasons.
Much of the region’s mass-transit system — including large parts of the subway, buses, ferries and commuter railroads — is expected to be up and running at almost pre-Sandy levels by the start of the workweek.
The MTA is expected to bring back huge chunks of subway service this weekend when power is restored to the Manhattan grid.
Gov. Cuomo said the subways could be operational soon after Con Ed restores power to Lower Manhattan.
In a sign of things to come, the agency yesterday brought back limited service on the 5 train in The Bronx between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street.
Cuomo said to expect more restorations throughout the weekend.
Even the chaotic bus terminals set up to bridge the service gap between Downtown Brooklyn and 34th Street in Manhattan — where there is no electricity to run trains — were a marked improvement yesterday.
“Today the line is moving much faster,” said Windsor Terrace resident Lauren Deatherage, 32,.
“You can’t really complain much considering how much people are suffering.”
Another sign that things are returning to normal: The MTA began collecting fares last night on all of its services for the first time since it reopened.
Brooklyn-Manhattan shuttle buses will remain free.
Metro-North will restore all service on its Hudson Line, which suffered severe flooding during the hurricane, starting today.
The New Haven line has already opened in its entirety, as has most of the Harlem Line.
Those three lines serve 95 percent of Metro-North’s customers.
The Port Jervis and Pascack lines remain suspended.
NJ Transit also began bringing in a limited number of trains to Penn Station yesterday, with service due to follow a weekend schedule on Monday.
Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg lifted all of the HOV restrictions on vehicles entering Manhattan.
“We expect so much power to be restored and mass transit to be restored that it will not be necessary to reinstitute those [rules] on Monday,” he said.
He warned that if widespread gridlock gripped the city he would reinstate the policy, which requires all passenger vehicles entering Manhattan to carry a minimum of three people.
“They [the restrictions] did make a very big difference, even though they do impact and inconvenience a lot of people,” he said.
The expected return of mass transit will also help alleviate some of the gas shortages because people will be able to leave their cars at home, he said.
The Staten Island Ferry was back in operation yesterday for the first time since the storm, which heavily damaged its terminals.
The ferries — which were not damaged — will be on their normal weekday schedule Monday.
The East River and Hudson River ferries are also expected to be close to normal operations by Monday.