Published: January 25,2016
Airports
up and down the East Coast are open again with limited service after
tens of thousands of flights were cancelled over the weekend. Ground
transportation is slowly crawling back into operation as the crippling
effects of Winter Storm Jonas that brought East Coast cities to a
standstill drift into the next work week.
(MORE: Latest Impacts from Jonas)
Travel bans in New York and Baltimore
have been lifted, and the stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike where
more than 500 vehicles were trapped at the height of Jonas has been
fully reopened in both directions.
Here are the latest impacts to travel around the region.
Airports Slowly Returning to Normal Operations
All
the major airports in areas affected by Winter Storm Jonas were delay
free by Monday afternoon, according to FlightAware, but more than 1,500
flights remained canceled, the largest portion of which were out of
Newark Liberty International Airport.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin was on a rescheduled pre-dawn flight from Springfield, Illinois, to Chicago
while on the way to Washington on Monday morning. The Illinois Democrat
said he's not even sure he'll be able to get to D.C. today, but he's
been through this before.
"Most of us who spend part of our lives
in Washington know to expect the worst when it comes to snow," he said.
"I knew the forecast was enough to cause a problem."Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport both tweeted Monday morning they would be running limited schedules, as did BWI. All NYC area airports were running Monday, but cautioned on Twitter that all carriers might not be operating.
The bulk of Saturday's 4,511 cancelations were at airports in the New York City and Washington, D.C.,
metro areas, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Another
3,425 flights were canceled for Sunday, and the count keeps rising.
As
the storm intensified, United Airlines announced it would not operate
out of airports in the Washington area on Sunday. Service should
gradually resume Monday, the airline said. "Very limited" service would
restart Sunday afternoon at airports in the New York City area.
All
major airlines issued waivers for travel over the weekend, allowing
passengers to rebook onto earlier or later flights to avoid the storms.
The airports included vary by airline, but they include cities in
Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia all the way up the coast to New
Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Travel Bans Lifted in New York, Baltimore
The travel ban that barred nonemergency vehicles from the roads of New York City
was lifted at 7 a.m. Sunday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Subways, buses and
Metro-North Railroad service have been restored, but only partial
service had been restored on the Long Island Rail Road as of Monday
morning.
There are more than 2,000 snow removal units
still working in various areas of the city, especially Queens, NYC Mayor
Bill De Blasio said in press conference late Monday morning. Anyone who
wants to help with snow removal efforts can go to any sanitation garage
and get a work assignment paying $13.50 an hour and $20.25 an hour
after 40 hours.
The city has also canceled alternate
side parking through Saturday and is asking residents to let the snow
melt naturally off vehicles rather than brushing it off into the street
where city crews will have to deal with it.
Diesel train service
was restored in diesel territory on the Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson
branches between Greenport and Ronkonkoma and west of Speonk on the
Montauk branch.Service remains suspect on the Port Washington, Far Rockaway, Hempstead, Long Beach and West Hempstead branches and east of Speonk on the Montauk branch.
There is no service
between Jamaica Station and Atlantic Terminal. Those tickets will be
cross-honored by NYC Transit on the 2 and 3 trains between Brooklyn and
Penn Station.
In Baltimore, the travel ban was lifted Sunday, but Monday morning the Baltimore City Department of Transportaion was still urging residents to stay off city streets if possible.
The
Phase II plan remained in effect as of 8 a.m. Monday, meaning all
vehicles venturing out on city roads must have all-weather tires. In
addition, officials said parking will still be restricted along snow
emergency routes."
The city is continuing to offer free parking for residents in city garages on a first-come, first-served basis.
Pennsylvania Fully Reopened
Authorities say the section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike where hundreds of vehicles were stranded has fully reopened in both directions.
At
the height of Winter Storm Jonas, more than 500 cars, trucks and buses —
including two university sports teams and a church group — became
stranded in a miles-long backup Friday night. The gridlock started when two tractor-trailers collided Friday night while traveling side by side in a snowy construction zone.
Turnpike
officials are vowing an extensive review of the situation and response.
Mark P. Compton, chief executive of the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Commission, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “there are a lot of things I can own” in terms of the strategy that was employed to clear and reopen the highway.
“I
can promise you all that there will be a thorough analysis of the
events that led up to this incident as well as a review of what occurred
over the course of the last two and a half days," he said. "I want to
be certain that we do a better job the next time something like this
occurs, and that we can learn from this tragedy.”
Philadelphia
International Airport tweeted Monday morning that flights are operating
but passangers should check their flight status before coming to the
airport. As of 9 a.m. Monday morning only 50 flights had been cancelled,
accodring to FlightAware.
New Jersey Public Transportation Reopens
New
Jersey Transit has resumed regular weekday rail service Monday, with
the exception of the Gladstone Branch along the Morris and Essex Lines
due to weather-related issues. The NJ Transit Authority said Monday
morning that bus service will vary based on road conditions and local
snow removal efforts.
Major highways are clear, but
snow remains a problem on local roads, the Associated Press reports.
Motorists are advised to drive cautiously because of slick spots,
especially on highway ramps.
New Jersey state troopers responded to 301 crashes and aided 1,635 motorists during the storm.
Amtrak Running Modified Schedule
Amtrak will continue operating a modified schedule in mid-Atlantic region, following a winter storm.Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other services between Boston and Washington D.C., and Keystone Service between Harrisburg, Pa., and New York, will operate on a modified schedule on Monday, Jan. 25. There will be reduced Amtrak service between Washington and points in Virginia due to local conditions.
Passengers who have reservations on affected services are being contacted and accommodated on other trains with similar departure times or offered alternate travel dates.
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