NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The MTA said on Sunday that the W train will resume service on Monday, weeks after it was halted due to a worker shortage in the midst of once-surging omicron cases.
"Fortunately, the number of people unavailable due to COVID has eased in the last few days; therefore, we are able to restore service on the W, the last subway line suspended during the omicron surge," said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
Lieber noted COVID-linked absences have continued to drop, allowing the W to be restored.
"We have gone from 14% of our train operator and conductor workforce being out due to COVID down to 7%, and the numbers continue to drop every day," she added.
The W line has seven stops in Queens, beginning at Astroia Ditmars Boulevard. The line enters Manhattan at Lexington Avenue/59th Street and completes its run at Whitehall Street South Ferry.
In a press release on Sunday, the MTA noted that the full restoration of all previously suspended subway lines comes as ridership has increased.
On Jan. 13, ridership was approximately 2.52 million, the highest since the start of the omicron surge just before Christmas. Prior to that surge, subways carried more than 3 million riders on an average weekday and hit four successive pandemic records in four weeks, including 3.43 million on Dec. 9.
