W Service Back On Track This Week, MTA Says

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Commuting between Astoria and Manhattan is shaping up to be a little bit easier this week since W train service is finally back on track.

Last week, the MTA brought back service to six of the seven train lines that it suspended for weeks amid COVID-linked staff shortages — except for the W train, which remained offline much to the chagrin of some Queens residents, Patch reported.

More train operators and conductors have come back to work in the past few days though, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said on Sunday, prompting the W train to come back online as of Jan. 24 (making good on the transit agency's promise last week to bring it back "soon.")

"Fortunately, the number of people unavailable due to COVID has eased in the last few days," said Lieber, noting that the percentage of employees sick with COVID has plummeted from 14 percent to seven percent and "continue[s] to drop every day."

The MTA kept the city's 472 stations running (with alternate service) amid the suspensions; a "challenge" that Demetrius Crichlow, New York City Transit Senior Vice President for Subways, congratulated the city's subway team for overcoming.

W train stations were serviced by the N train in Queens and the N, Q, and R trains in Manhattan amid the suspension, but some riders still faced train delays and inconvenient transfers — all of which should be lessened this week, MTA brass said.

"With crews returning, we can get back to our core mission of ever improving our customers’ public transportation experience," said New York City Transit Interim President Craig Cipriano on Sunday.

And it's not just crews that are coming back to the subway this month: the MTA noted that mid-January subway ridership reached its highest peak since the start of the city's omicron surge.

This article originally appeared on the Astoria-Long Island City Patch