Hurricane Irene: Subway Service Fully Restored in New York City

After Hurricane Irene forced a massive shutdown of mass transit in New York City, subway service has been fully restored citywide, NBC New York reported.

The MTA said at about 11:30 a.m. all 468 stations had service. The system carries 5 million riders on an average weekday.

New Jersey Transit will operate bus and light rail service on a modified schedule Monday, while rail service, except for the Atlantic City line, will remain suspended until further notice. And commuters seeking transportation to or from New Jersey will be able to take the PATH train, which resumed service at 4 a.m.

Metro-North resumed service at 2 p.m., but operating on a Sunday schedule only for the Lower Hudson and Lower Harlem lines. The other lines remain suspended.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg shut the city down Saturday in advance of Hurricane Irene in an unprecedented move. City subways and bus lines closed through early Monday morning. Evacuation orders in place for Lower Manhattan were lifted Sunday afternoon.

The National Hurricane Center had forecast Irene would reach Category 4 along the East Coast wtih winds of at least 131 miles per hour but that didn't happen, as colder Atlantic waters calmed the storm to a Category 1 before it reached Long Island. The biggest Irene ever got was a Category 3 storm, with winds of 120 miles per hour.

The hurricane center also forecast Irene would reach Category 4 level, with maximum sustained winds of 131 mph. It only reached Category 3, with winds of 120 mph. Hours before the storm made landfall in New York, the center was forecasting it would arrive as a Category 1 hurricane. By the time it reached the city, it had weakened to a tropical storm with winds of 65 mph.