New York City Shuts Train Service as Ida Barrels Through Region

The transit situation on Thursday in New York City remained paralyzed, with service on more than half of the city’s subway lines disrupted, commuter rail lines running limited trains, and Amtrak canceling service on a major corridor.

Subway and train service was slowly resuming and New York City lifted a travel ban at 5 a.m., but warned residents to remain at home. Amtrak suspended all morning service between Philadelphia and Boston, a major business corridor.

At least eight New York City subway lines were suspended and another 10 were partially suspended, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s website.

Metro-North Railroad reminded people that a state of emergency had been declared in the state, and urged people to not travel. The Long Island Rail Road announced it had restored “extremely limited” westbound service to Penn Station.

The delays followed a night of heavy rainfall that flooded streets and train stations, and stranded countless travelers.

Video from CBS New York showed an M.T.A. bus stopped on a street in Staten Island last night, “submerged in waist-deep water,” it said. Fire fighters helped escort passengers and the driver to higher ground, according to the station.

In New Jersey, about 200 people were rescued from a train near Newark Liberty International Airport on Wednesday night that was caught in heavy rains and flooding in that area.

The passengers had been stuck in a train near the airport for about three and a half hours before they were rescued at about 9 p.m., Jim Smith, spokesman for New Jersey Transit, said. No injuries were reported, he said.

Janno Lieber, acting chairman of the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said Wednesday in a statement that “massive amounts of water” from an “epic storm” had created “severe disruptions.”

New Yorkers should not travel until further notice, he said.

Extreme storms have battered New York’s 24-hour train service in recent years. Service was stalled for several days following damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. And in 2015, officials shut down subway service in anticipation of a severe snowstorm, which turned out to be milder than expected.

At the 96th Street Subway station in Manhattan on Wednesday, Mario Villa, a cook at Tartina, waited at least 2 hours for a train to his home in Queens. At midnight, sitting on a stalled No. 1 train beside a co-worker, he said, “We’ll wait. We don’t get upset. We just have to wait.”

Andy Newman, Anne Barnard, Stacy Cowley and Christiaan Triebert contributed reporting.