NEW YORK CITY - After nearly two years of inoperative status due to the destruction of Midtown Manhattan and the subsequent settling and structural damages from the explosion of 2006, the New York City Transit Authority announced earlier today that nearly fifty percent of the subway lines serving greater Manhattan have been reopened.
While the 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, D, E, F, V and Q routes still do not offer service through Midtown, they continue to offer short-distance travel between neighborhoods outside of Midtown with no through service.
However, routes 4, 5 and 6 which were heavily damaged in the explosion of 2006 have been repaired and reopened for public use, which reopens the first artery that cuts across the Midtown region since 2006. Additionally, 91st Street Station, City Hall Station, and Worth Street Station - which were all closed due to renovations prior to the bomb - have been reopened to help make up for the loss of several stations now buried under Midtown.
Renovations done to the public transit system in the past two years has come at a steep 2.4 billion dollar tab to the city's taxpayers, and despite public outcry of lax funding for the repair of roads and residences damaged by the debris from the bomb as far away as Chelsea, the planned return of the subway system has gone off without a hitch.
New York City's mayor Harry Bianco was present, along with Kain Zarek, representative of the Linderman Group - whom have made a sizeable donation to this project - at the reopening of the 4, 5 and 6 routes at the Union Square Station to much celebration. While an effort is underway to rebuild the remaining collapsed tunnels, it is a part of the far grander Midtown Reclamation Project slated to conclude sometime in 2012.