#NYC subway lines suspended over COVID staffing shortages set to resume

Transit officials will resume service on five subway lines they suspended in December to cope with COVID staff shortages, Acting MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Tuesday.

The B, Z, Rockaway Shuttle routes will come back online Wednesday along with express service on the 6 and 7 lines, Lieber told reporters during an unrelated announcement in the Bronx.

The W line will remain suspended for the time being, he said.

All six lines were scrapped during the last week of December as the MTA faced a spike in virus cases among its public-facing workforce. Lieber said the transit authority had seen conductor and motorman absences drop by half an Omicron wave peak of 14 percent just a few weeks ago, allowing his team to bring back the suspended routes. 

“With the Omicron, we had a very sudden and significant impact,” he told reporters. “It’s no secret we had to suspend a couple of service on a couple of lines that happened to provide redundant routings.”

Lieber said the Omicron wave had not “crippled service” at the MTA like it did for many airlines forced to cancel hundreds of flights over the Christmas holiday. He said the MTA would continue to operate 24/7 service at all of its 472 subway stations.

Follow the latest news on the Omicron variant with the New York Post’s live coverage

Transit officials previously declined to say how many workers have been sidelined by Omicron, but workers contracting COVID is just one source of the MTA’s staffing woes: The authority was already down on bus and train operators due to a pandemic hiring freeze that officials do not expect to have recovered from until well into 2022.

Unlike city employees, employees of the state-run MTA are not required to be vaccinated.