NEW YORK — Four subway lines serving lower Manhattan will go back into service in September, a year after they were blocked by tons of rubble from the World Trade Center — and two months earlier than expected, a wire service reported.
“This is the good news story from lower Manhattan,” said NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges. “It is a win-win story for 1.35 million subway riders, from Staten Island to the upper West Side.”
Subway officials said contractors made unexpectedly rapid progress in clearing out the debris-blocked tunnel that had carried the 1, 2, 3 and 9 trains under or near the twin towers complex that was destroyed by terrorist hijackers of two airliners Sept. 11. The reopening of service originally was projected for mid-November.
Fleuranges said crews have cleared and repaired 1,400 yards of tunnel and laid about a half mile of new double track.
Pictures taken after Sept. 11 showed the tunnel and the Cortlandt Street station filled with rubble and huge steel girders that jutted from above. Fleuranges said he had no figures on how much debris was removed.