Gov. Cuomo: No Major Delays On Mass Transit; LIRR Announces Rush Hour Changes

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A powerful, fast-moving winter storm that brought heavy snow before moving out of the Tri-State area caused some delays and cancellations on mass transit Thursday.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there were no major delays on mass transit and he didn't expect to need to close down the Long Island Rail Road or subways.

"At this time they're up, they're running, the preparation was done," Cuomo said.

The Long Island Rail Road announced several changes for rush hour service. For a detailed list of changes on the Port Jefferson, Babylon, Port Washington and Long Beach branches click here.

Some New York City subway lines were running with delays because of signal and switch troubles. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said bus service was running with delays across all five boroughs. Some buses had to be detoured because of icy roads.

The 1 train subway line was shut down south of 14th street due to signal trouble at around noon but was restored a short time later.

NJ TRANSIT was expecting to continue to run regular weekday service for the remainder of the day Thursday.

"We have crews that are dispatched throughout the system with plows and jet blowers," Nelson said. "We do have some of our crews that are being held up arriving to stations to operate trains due to the road conditions so we're trying to adjust for that."

During the height of the storm, there were some delays on buses and trains.

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Multiple NJ TRANSIT passenger buses became stuck around 9:30 a.m. in Weehawken while exiting the Lincoln Tunnel, causing some delays back into the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Crews were sent out to salt the icy roads so the buses could gain some traction, spokesperson Jennifer Nelson said.

Some crews were also held up arriving to stations to operate trains due to the road conditions, Nelson said.

The agency's Access Link is cancelling all service in Regions 4, 5, and 6 affecting Middlesex, Monmouth, North Ocean, Mercer, Essex, Somerset, Morris, Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties due to hazardous road conditions and low visibility.

Access Link will continue operating in South Jersey.

NJ TRANSIT is cross-honoring tickets systemwide.

"We're asking our customer to please be patient, check our website regularly cause we're updating information as it's coming in, particularly on social media," Nelson said. "If customers can stay home today they should absolutely take advantage."

Port Authority was warning customers that some bus service may be canceled. The weather also slowed PATH service on the Newark-World Trade Center line.

For the most part, the Port Authority said service on PATH trains was at or near normal levels throughout the morning commute, with fewer riders using the trains.

Some Metro-North trains were also running with delays.

A switch problem delayed service on the New Haven Line, while the Hudson Line saw delays of up to 30 minutes because of a train with mechanical difficulties. Weather related issues also caused minor delays on the Harlem Line.

Long Island Rail Road customers faced some delays and cancellations due to the weather during the morning rush hour, but there were no significant problems.

"We had the advantage of knowing that this storm was coming so based on our prior storm experience we took proper precautions and our morning rush hour ran relatively smoothly," Ronnie Hakim, the MTA's New York City Transit president, said.

The LIRR scheduled four additional trains for the afternoon rush hour as early as 1:49 p.m.

"Everybody that we brought in to New York this morning we are going to bring home safely this afternoon," Hakim said.

Nassau Inter-County Express was suspending all fixed route bus as of 6 p.m. Service was expected to be restored by Friday morning. For more information, click here. 

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