The MTA will resume limited subway service Thursday as crews continue working to pump water out of flooded stations and tunnels throughout the city, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Limited Thursday service will be supplemented by buses between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Service below 34th Street in Manhattan remains suspended indefinitely due to power outages. Authorities previously said it could take five days, if not longer, to restore service to the stations most affected by flooding.

Seven subway tunnels under the East River all had flooding, but three have been pumped out, Cuomo said. MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said Tuesday the 108-year-old subway system has never faced such devastation, he said.

Lhota told NBC 4 New York that he couldn’t even begin to say when subways and commuter rails might return to full service. All the damage, he said, was to tracks, stations and tunnels; subway cars and buses were not harmed.

“It’s like nothing we’ve ever experienced before,” he said. “We are in the assessment stage.”

Limited bus service resumed Tuesday and the MTA said local and express bus service would operate on as close to a normal weekday schedule as possible beginning Wednesday. Fares were waived for a second day.

Lhota said buses would be used to replace subway service along lines where repairs are expected to take longer.

The South Ferry station, for example, was flooded up to the ceiling, said Lhota. 

Cuomo said limited Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road service would resume at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

PATH service between Manhattan and New Jersey has been suspended since midnight Sunday, and will remain suspended “indefinitely” due to flooding, officials said Tuesday. 

Source: NBC 4 NY

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