MTA Suspends Above Ground Subways Amid Massive Winter Storm

NEW YORK CITY — Dangerous, blizzard-like conditions prompted New York transit officials to suspend above ground service and weigh other road, rail, bridge and tunnel cancellations.

The above ground suspension will take effect Monday at 2 p.m., said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit Authority. Below ground lines and buses remain running, but future closures could be announced, she said.

“If you are not home, and you need to get home, you need to start making your way there now,” she said shortly after noon.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a state of emergency for 44 counties, including New York City’s boroughs, as a major Nor’Easter blasts the region. He said no one other than essential workers should be on city’s and state’s roads.

The storm’s rate of snowfall is anticipated to be 2 inches per hour — faster than snow plows can clear it, Cuomo said.

“It is very dangerous out there,” he said.

Ridership on LIRR and Metro-North rail lines is “light,” Patrick Foye, who is MTA’s president and CEO, said.

He said the last LIRR trains will leave Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. The final Metro-North trains will depart Grand Central at about 3 p.m., he said.

Traffic on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge’s upper levels is suspended, Foye said.

Cuomo said New Yorkers can also expect road closures, such as on the Long Island Expressway, to be announced later Monday.

“Again, plan on road closures,” he said.